The Return of the Time Lord
by thedemigodintraining
Summary: SET AFTER HOUSE OF HADES: The 7 in the prophecy returned to Camp Half-Blood, and make peace with the Romans who are now staying in the camp. Can the campers save Western Civilization from Gaia? Are the rumors of Kronos' return true?
1. Chapter 1 - The Realization

Ana

Being normal is having two parents who are both human. Being normal is having a life where monsters don't chase you. Being normal is going to school, having friends, a bed, and clothes on your back. Being normal is so underrated. I used to be normal, or at least some definition of normal. I went to school, I was in the same grade as my adopted sister, we weren't twins, but our parents kept us together because I have trouble in math and English. Yeah, I repeated 8th grade. I have trouble sitting still sometimes, mainly when I am nervous, tense, worried, stressed, yeah… I think you get the point. I used to wonder what my parents thought when they watched my siblings and I growing up, did they think we were anything alike? Did my parents play favorites?

You see, my family is around 70 percent Italian, which naturally includes Greek, and then in other portions we have many nationalities from countries that are farther north. My mortal Dad has jet blue-black hair, gray eyes, and a darker, Italian skin tone. My Mother has dark brown hair, brown eyes, and well-tanned skin. My younger brothers Eric and Nicholas have black curly hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. As you can see, they all take the 'Italian genes'. I started to question my parents when I was old enough to see the differences between myself and my siblings.

When I was younger, not so often now, kids at school would say my Mom cheated on my Dad. You see I am the 'family fluke'. I came out with very light blonde hair, pale skin, blue eyes, and freckles all over me. My hair has since darkened to a more golden strawberry blonde, and apparently it can be near-blinding in the sunlight. Well now that I have explained my 'genetic mishap', I guess I should explain that I have more siblings, two more to be exact.

They aren't my parent's kids, biologically anyways. My parents adopted them when I was younger, they aren't siblings blood-wise. Helene, who is my age, is gorgeous to say the least. She has long black hair that goes down to her thighs, golden-brownish eyes, and light tan skin. Then there is Orion, Helene's brother and he has curly black hair and golden-brownish eyes. They are twins and my parents adopted them at about the same time I was born.

I'm a half-blood, yeah, like Percy Jackson, who is a pretty awesome kid, but it's a lot more complicated than that. Now if you don't know what a half-blood is, another word for us is demigod. It means half mortal/human and half god. The male gods have been 'visiting' mortal women since the dawn of time, sometimes showing their true form, sometimes disguising themselves as the woman's husband, and once in a while through rape. In my case (as far as I know and as far as I want to know), my godly parent disguised himself as my Mom's husband, my mortal Dad.

It was a normal sunny day at school; I was vacuuming the lunchroom floor (detention again) while the other kids were playing outside. I was alone in the lunchroom, and that was the way I liked it. I was singing to myself as I always did when suddenly it felt like someone was in the room with me. At the time I was a Christian, not a strict Christian but a Christian none the less. At first I figured I was imagining it, then I thought maybe it was an angel, after all I was only 12 years old. But I had a funny feeling that it wasn't an angel. "You will go east. Prepare child." The 'presence's' voice said. I had trouble distinguishing the voices gender, but at the time I was too startled to care. I quietly whispered, "What?" which obviously was a great response. "You will go east," the voice repeated, "Prepare child." "Why am I going east?!" I yelled, and then I felt the 'presence' leave the room. Suddenly another student, Hannah popped her head in the room with a puzzled look on her face. "You alright?" she asked, "Yeah, why?" "I heard you yell at someone." She replied with an irritated look on her face. Lexy was a somewhat loud girl with shoulder-length brown hair and she was normally a the comic, but now she just seemed… disturbed. "Everything's fine Lexy," I said with a nervous smile on my face. "You sure?" she asked again, now I was getting impatient. "Yeah, don't worry about it." After I reassured her she left the room and I resumed vacuuming.

The next three years went by fast, almost too fast. I spent my time playing with my siblings, causing trouble, singing, playing pranks, etc. It seemed for a moment that everything was perfect. Then the strange happenings started again. Now ever since I was little… well… strange things have happened to me. When I was five I was playing near a well behind my house. I was balancing on a fence next to the well and suddenly a big arm with claws dug into my shoulder and pushed me off of the fence and into the well, I landed more on than in an old bucket that had been left hanging in the well and I climbed out trying to restore my dignity. I had a big cut down my arm. I started crying and ran to my Dad who got the first aid kit and asked me what happened. "Some… push… monster-"I stuttered out between sobs. "It's okay, it's not that bad." He told me. I don't know what he was seeing, but I could see a bit of my bone sticking out. Then everything truly changed.

I was playing hide and go seek outside with my siblings, I was 15 and I was running full speed. Anyways, I felt someone push me on my right shoulder, I turned as I was falling and no one was there. I hit the ground with a hard "thunk", and slammed my head on a brick in the garden-work. I looked around for a moment and then everything turned black. I woke up with leaves stuck in my hair. I went inside and there was a small lump on my head, a lump that should have been much bigger considering how hard I hit my head. As I looked in the mirror I had the urge to touch it and upon touching it… it started shrinking, slowly but in around a minute it was gone. I jerked away from the mirror and ran to my room. 'What's going on?' I asked myself while pacing around my room like a maniac, thankful I was home alone. This can't be happening, wounds don't dissapear by touching them. Suddenly a pale shadow was thrown across my room. I turned around and saw a boy standing behind me.


	2. Chapter 2 - Introductions of Sorts

Ana

I yelped and fell over, tripping over my backpack. "What? Who?" I asked. He looked at my sympathetically and it was only then that I noticed, I could see through him. He had short cut blonde hair, bright blue eyes, spunky looking eyebrows, tanned skin, and a long scar across his face. It looked like someone took a knife to him. He looked to be in his late teens or early twenties. He offered me his hand and said, "My name is Luke, sorry if I scared you." I looked at him, stunned, but I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up. "It's… um… nice to meet you Luke," I said. I was surprised because as soon as my hand came in contact with his, he was no longer see-through. He was a solid figure, and a muscular one at that. "My name is Anastasia," I stated, "Anastasia Thompson, I'm 15." "I know," he replied, "I've been watching you." Stunned I retorted, "Watching me? Who the hell are you?" "Yes kiddo, watching you," He replied. "For a little while now, I had to wait for the right time to explain things to you." "Explain things to me?" I asked. "Yes, sit down." I sat on my bed and he grabbed a chair and put it in front of me, he sat down on it backwards. "Kiddo, prep yourself, I've waited to tell you this, but you're-" He stopped talking. "Yes?" I asked. "You're a demigod." He replied quickly.

Suddenly I wished I hadn't asked. "What do you mean, 'I'm a demigod'?" I asked with a puzzled, stunned, and somewhat hurt tone to my voice. Luke looked at me sympathetically and he seemed to be contemplating his next statement. "Your Father is a god, a Greek god to be exact. You're Mother, well… 'hooked up with' whomever your godly Father is, and well… you came along." He said this as if he had done this before. "What do you mean? So my mortal Dad isn't mine?" I asked. "Not exactly, you see, in your case I'm pretty sure that whoever the god was that fell in love with your Mother disguised himself as your mortal Father. Anyways, you are what happens when there is a relationship between a god and a mortal," he said calmly. "Well now I've heard everything", I replied. "So," I replied, "I'm like Achilles, Heracles, etc. except without their 'awesome factor'? I have a god as a parent?" "Yes, exactly," he responded. He did so with such ease I began to think I was dreaming. I had to be dreaming. 'I am Christian!' I thought to myself.

A part of me 'knew' these Greek gods existed. I once had told my teacher at the private school I went to that they existed and she belted me across the hands with her ruler. "Are you okay?" Luke asked. "Am I okay?" I retorted, "Well I just found out that I am a demigod, normally a human is never told that in their lifetime." He smiled, "Well, you aren't a human, you are a half-blood, which is another word for demigod." "Now I don't know how to explain this," he said slowly, "but you are in danger." "Me?" I asked, no more stunned than before. "Yes… You are a demigod, so you have ichor, godly blood, flowing through your veins along with your mortal blood. This godly blood attracts monsters." I nodded, beginning to understand. "Like the Minotaur, Chimera, and-""Don't say their names!" he yelled putting one of his hands over his mouth, "Names have power." "Okay, I won't", I replied. "So this is why I look nothing like my mortal parents?" I asked somewhat hurt. "Yes," he sighed, "although you are still related to both of your mortal parents, godly blood is stronger, you are more of a godling than a mortal". I looked around nervously, I wanted to cry, yet a part of me had always known this, not exactly known I was a half-blood, but that I was… different. "I have to go?" I asked. "You don't have to, but it would be in your families best interests as well as your own." I thought about his response before replying, "So the monsters won't only hunt me, but also my family?" "Yes," Luke replied. I sighed, "Want to help me pack?" He smiled and nodded, "Sure, don't worry."

An hour later I had some shirts, jeans, shorts, socks, and the rest of my necessities packed in my school backpack of which I had emptied it's school contents on my bed. "So… will I ever go to school again?" I asked. "Well, some half-bloods go to the camp I am bringing you to only for the summer, but it is too dangerous for half-bloods with stronger auras, or scents," he replied while looking at my stuffed animals. He looked at a couple of stuffed snakes wistfully. "You can have them you know," I said calmly. He smirked, still looking at them, "No that's okay… they just remind me of my . . . oh . . . never mind." He turned and asked, "Where is the telephone?" "Downstairs, it's on an old column by the door." He nodded and said, "Thanks. Don't run away now, you hear me?" "No promises," I said, trying to smile.

He ran out of my bedroom and down the stairs faster than I can type about it. I looked at his backpack and decided he was traveling pretty light. I grabbed the two snake stuffed animals and carefully place them in his bag. 'I didn't even ask where we were going!' I thought silently. Suddenly Luke came running into the room,

"Ready to go?"

"I guess so. Where are we going?" I replied, eager to hear.

Luke held a finger to his lips and motioned for me to get him a pen and some paper. He started scribbling like a maniac,

**_"I can't say the name of the camp out loud as it attracts monsters, but it is called "Camp Half-Blood", it's a camp, and sometimes permanent home for your half-bloods."_**

I nodded understandingly. "Can I leave a note for my parents?" I asked. "Sure kiddo," he replied with another look of sympathy on his face, like he knew something I didn't know. He handed me the notebook and pencil he had used to write his note and walked over to my stuffed animals. "This one is your favorite isn't it?" he asked, picking up my stripped cat I had lying next to my pillow. "Yeah," I replied. He picked it up and put it in my backpack and I went to work on my note.

**_"Dear Mom and Dad,_**

**_ Don't worry, everything is alright. I can't stay here any longer; this is for my safety and yours . . . I am being well taken care of and I will be back soon." I knew that was a lie, but I didn't want to scare them more so than they already would be. "Take care of my puppy and my siblings. I love you all! Xoxo – A" Luke asked for the notepad and started writing,_**

**_"P.S. – My name is Luke; a satyr will be here to explain everything shortly. Don't worry about your daughter, she will be fine."_**

He pulled the note off of the pad and set it on my bed. I looked at him and nodded, "Let's go". He nodded and we headed down the stairs. Suddenly my dog jumped on me, as though she was begging me not to go. "Okay pup, be good while I'm gone. You are the ruler of my room now got it?" She just kept licking me, not that I expected her to reply. I kissed her and Luke and I left. I turned and looked at my house wistfully; I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever be back. Luke seemed to be reading my thoughts, "You made the right choice you know, I've actually never seen a half-blood so . . . easy to convince of their . . . parentage before," he said somewhat surprised. "I've had some suspicions, strange things happening to me when I was younger," I replied, "I'm sure you know what I am talking about." He nodded and we were on our way. He pulled two airline tickets out of his bag. From Alaska to Chicago – that's what the tickets said. We hopped on the plane and talked about a lot of things.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Journey

Ana

The airplane ride was easy, almost too easy. After talking with Luke some more he said we were traveling to New York. We were in Chicago at the time, a long way from New York, the airplane had landed and we were on the road. "So, what hobbies do you have?" he asked. "I thought you have been spying on me, shouldn't you know?" I laughed out. He chuckled and said, "You remind me of someone I knew a while ago." I smiled and said, "Well… I am a somewhat well-known singer – I like Broadway the best," he nodded his head for me to continue, "I run Track and Field and I am a champion horse-back rider. I have a perfect GPA, or should I say _had_ a perfect GPA," he laughed. "When you mention music, I'd say you were an Apollo kid, but the 4.0 GPA makes me wonder, as does the athletic endeavors." "I love flying," I continued calmly. "How did you manage the good GPA?" Luke asked curiously. "Well, I probably shouldn't have a good GPA, but . . . I mean, I have been held back, and I have been made to repeat a grade, but I did try. I guess I learned the work over so much I just manage to ACE it now. In all honesty I'm not really good in school," I sad sadly. My adopted siblings were amazing in school, as were my younger brothers.

"What about archery?" he asked, obviously trying to change the subject. "I have only done it a few times, but I would have to say I'm slightly better then average. My strength is swordfighting. I was sword fighting with my adopted brother earlier this year, the swords were metal Roman cavalry swords, my Dad likes our training to be realistic, anyways I must have hit too hard because I broke my brother's sword clean in half along with his pride." Luke looked me over like I was some sort of experiment, but he just smiled and didn't say anything about it. We slept that night in the woods, somewhere near a bus stop. It was pretty cold so we built a small fire in an oversized, empty, can of beans. "So," I asked, "did we bring any money?" He grabbed his back pocket feeling inside of it, "Yeah, I didn't think you would have any so I brought quite a bit." "And besides," he continued, "I didn't want you stealing from your parents." I laughed and said, "Steal? We have no money to steal!" Suddenly I felt guilty about leaving and started to contemplate going back. Luke must have been reading my thoughts again because he said, "Your family would be dead if you hadn't have left, you made the right choice." I nodded, still feeling guilty. I must have fallen asleep against our backpacks because when I woke up in the morning I had marks left on my arm and shoulder. We walked over to the bus stop and hopped on. This bus was supposed to take us straight to our destination in New York, but naturally we didn't make it that far. The bus had a couple of TV's in it, and suddenly my picture popped up on the screens. Luke quickly grabbed a wide brimmed hat out of my backpack and put it on my head, covering my face. The notice on the TV read, "Anastasia Aine Alexander, aged 15, kidnapped by a male named Luke. Neighbors say he is about 6'0"." I started to sweat under that hat, 'What if they find us?' I started to wonder. Luke put his hand on my shoulder and pulled a book out of my bag, "Aesop's Fables", "Read a while, it will make the trip go by quicker," he said.

About six hours later we were pulling into Ohio. The Amber Alert reporting my being missing had played about twenty more times. "I need to make a call, back in a sec," Luke said. "I thought demigods couldn't carry cellphones?" I asked. He looked at me again studying me before asking, "How did you know that, I didn't fill you in on that bit?" I wondered how I knew that, "I don't know… My Mom always made sure I never carried a cellphone, I guess this must be why." "Maybe…" he replied. "Anyways I'm sending an Iris message," he whispered, "you make a rainbow and throw a golden drachma, godly coinage, into it. The goddess of the rainbow, Iris will send you through with your connection if she isn't too busy." "Oh, I see," I replied. He went into the bathroom with a gold coin in his hand, while I sat there by myself. I somehow knew about this, "Iris messaging". I had done it before… 'That's it!' I screamed inside of my head. When I was little I found a coin in a sewer next to my house, and I started playing with it. I was sitting near a sprinkler and naturally in the sunlight there was a big rainbow. I tossed the coin through it playfully and suddenly I heard a sound like a cash register go off and the coin disappeared. Somewhat scared I yelled, "Dada". Suddenly the rainbow transformed into the image of a man, a very strong looking man. He had hair much like mine and blue eyes. He was writing something and upon looking up he jumped about five feet, spilling a jar of gold ink in the process. I laughed in my babyish way; after all I was only around three years old at the time. He looked at me rather sternly for a moment, then his expression changed to a quizzical look, then he slowly started to smile like he had just figured out something I wouldn't know for a while. "Hi," I said happily at the man with golden hair. He smiled and leaned forward a bit, "Well hello sunshine," he replied. I knew this man somehow, my three year old self recognized this stranger. "I'm Ana..sta…szias," I said somewhat pathetically. Hey cut me some slack, I was only three. He laughed and I felt all warm inside, "Well hello Anastasia, my name is…" he paused for a moment and suddenly my Mom came to the door. He smiled and waved and I yelled, "Wait Mr. Man!" but he was gone. Suddenly the rainbow disappeared and my Mom stood at the door. "Who were you talking to?" she asked. I got up on my meaty legs and replied, "Big thing!" "Oh," my Mom replied, "is he a purple dragon or something?"

Suddenly the memory ended and Luke was walking out of the bathroom. "Did you get through?" I asked, "Yeah, Chiron will send Argus, the many-eyed man, to pick us up at the bus stop in NY." I nodded. I had been meaning to ask Luke why I could see through him when I first saw him in my bedroom, I just… didn't know how to ask. Even now, when I sometimes looked at him he seemed a bit… transparent, yet I could touch him and I didn't go through him. "Hey Luke, can I ask you a question?" He turned, "Sure," he replied, "what do you want to know?" I paused for a few seconds, contemplating how I would ask. "Well when I first saw you in my bedroom you were… sort of see through, even now there seems to be something different about you." He frowned; perhaps I had hit a nerve.

"Well I guess you have the right to know," he replied solemnly, "You see, when I was younger, about year or so ago, I made some . . . bad choices, I angered the gods and almost brought about the fall of Olympus." He paused; he looked like he was going to cry. "Anyways, I . . . um . . . died. And Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, gave me the opportunity to come back and make things right. I suppose now you don't want to be anywhere near me, huh?" I thought about it and smiled, "Look, everybody makes mistakes, no one is perfect. If I can help you set things to rights then I will." Luke looked relieved, he seemed to start crying. "So, do the other demigods you knew know you are back? Any gods know?" I asked. "No, the gods won't know for a while, Hades is doing this in secret," he replied, "but the other demigods I knew will know once I get you back to camp." I nodded, it was around midnight, and we were pulling out of Ohio. I yawned, and I could tell Luke was tired, so I told him I would take the first watch. He fell asleep in his seat, later leaning against my shoulder.

An hour or so later the bus started to swerve. "Luke," I whispered, "Wake up, come on." "What's wrong?" "The bus," I replied, "What's wrong with the driver?" "There is no driver…" he said. I stood up and looked towards the driver's seat, in place of the driver was a creature with large leathery wings, it had long claws, sharp teeth, and what looked like a hot leathery whip at her side. She hadn't noticed us stand up yet. Luke pushed me back into my seat. "I've seen that before," I whispered, "in my nightmares. Oh my goodness…" "What?" Luke asked. "Well in one of my nightmares I was on a bus, exactly like this one, with a boy, who looked like you… and that… thing currently in the driver's seat attacked the boy and I." Luke grabbed my shoulders, "Was that boy me?" "Yes." He grabbed his backpack and slid it on his back, and I grabbed mine. He slid a sword out of his bag; I hadn't seen it in there in the first place. Luke grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the emergency exit at the back of the bus. Suddenly the monster, which Luke said was called a Fury, turned and snarled. Luke turned around and pushed me to the back of the bus with himself between the monster and myself.

We were going around 80 mph as far as I could tell, if we tried to jump out of the back of the bus we would most likely die on impact. Well I would anyways, Luke was technically already dead, but his chance of coming back to life through Hades deal would be finished. The Fury lunged at Luke with her whip in hand, Luke swung his sword at the monster's shoulder and it cut into the monster's skin. Suddenly the bus made a sharp turn to the left. The driver was back in his seat and the people on the bus were screaming like there would be no tomorrow. I couldn't help but ask myself, 'Could they see this?' Suddenly Luke fell against the wall separating the bathroom from the rest of the bus. His sword clattered out of his hand, I grabbed it and lunged at the monster, who threw her whip at me. It burned through my shirt, wrapping around my arm. I stabbed the Fury through the chest and she burst into flames in front of me, crumbling to dust. I saw that we were pulling into an exit, most likely to get gas. I pulled the emergency rake at the back of the bus, opened the back door, grabbed our bags, returned the sword to Luke's bag, and pulled Luke up and over my shoulder, he was mumbling and dazed from hitting his head on the wall. We climbed out of the bus and into the night. I sat Luke down by the side of the road and closed the door on the back of the bus. The driver stood up, he seemed to be in a trance, and he came over to inspect the door. I pulled Luke and our belongings behind a tree before he could see us and moments later they resumed their route down the street. "Luke can you hear me?" I asked sitting him up against the tree. "You never said," he coughed out, "you could fight." I tried smiling, "I didn't know I could either."


	4. Chapter 4 - The First Fight

Luke

I was dazed, confused, and I felt like I was going to lose my lunch. "Ana?" I asked, "Yes Luke?" "Look in the front pocket of my backpack, there is a sandwich bag filled with Ambrosia, can you hand it to me?" She grabbed the bag without even asking what Ambrosia was and pulled a piece out, giving it to me. "That's godly food right? It heals a demigod's wounds?" she asked. "Yeah, how did you know?" "Oh," she responded, "I read it in a book. I like to read… depending on the book of course." I smiled and popped the Ambrosia chunk into my mouth. "Luke, aren't the Furies told what to do by Hades?" she asked. I thought for a moment, "Yes, why do you ask?" "Well didn't you say that Hades gave you a second chance? Why would he be trying to kill us? I thought he was on your side?" I had never thought about that as it was peculiar. Now I was mad, and my younger comrade must have been able to sense that as she immediately changed the subject. "Do you feel better?" she asked.

Her head tilted to the right such a way that I could have sworn I was looking at Annabeth. Although in the moonlight I could see they were two totally different people. Anastasia had bigger eyes, more blue-green vs. Annabeth's stern grey eyes… and Anastasia's hair was more of a golden red vs. Annabeth's "Cinderella-blonde" hair, although they both had the same style of unruliness to their hair. Heck, Anastasia even had that same amount of sternness about her, although she was much more playful in stressful situations. 'Oh gods, what am I thinking?' I asked myself. I felt guilty, it was my fault that Kronos was able to use me, I almost killed Annabeth… Now I had the opportunity to make amends and I wasn't going to mess up, I couldn't. I had already ripped this girl away from her family as it was. I couldn't believe she hadn't started crying yet. All half-bloods did, none of them truly wanted to leave their families.

"Um… Luke?" she asked.

"Yes Ana?"

"I just asked if you were alright and you have been sitting there staring at me for the past couple minutes."

I blinked a few times, "Oh, sorry, yeah I'm fine." I stood up and grabbed my bag and she followed. We were out of Ohio, just beyond the border. We had to cross Pennsylvania now, let alone the rest of NY before reaching our destination, and the bad news was that we couldn't use public transportation. Hades, the double crosser, would have Furies on every bus on the east coast, let alone any other monsters he would send out to 'play with us'.

The sun was rising; it was about 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning. We walked into a gas station and I went over to buy some water. I handed Ana some money to go buy some food and anything else we might need a few minutes before and upon turning around I saw her looking at the TV screen which had her 'missing' advertisement on it. I walked up behind her with my eyes fixed on the screen; her father was talking to some reporters. "Now your daughter is how old?" the TV reporter asked. "Today, July 19th, is her 16th birthday." Her father replied. Her birthday... I looked at her face and it looked like she was crying. Gods this little escape plan of ours just had to happen now. She turned and jumped a bit.

"Sorry if I scared you. You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said between sniffles, "I just miss them, I know I had to leave and all but…"

I could tell she felt guilty, guilty for leaving her family. She had a great life there, between school and her other hobbies. Now I felt worse. "Come on," I said, forcing a smile. We checked out at the counter, four bottles of water, a couple bags of Chex Mix, a box of granola bars, and some gum. She walked outside while I opened my backpack to put the food in. Taking up some unused space in my bag were her two toy snakes, each about two feet long and made out of soft velvety cloth. "That kid…" I said aloud.

Now we were going through Harrisburg, PA. I… borrowed some bikes, (hey, Hermes is also the god of thieves, what did you expect), and we were moving at a pretty good pace. So far, since the attack on the bus, we hadn't run into any monsters, thank the gods. I couldn't help but wonder if the gods knew I was… alive again. I wanted to avoid my Dad, but at the same time I wanted to see him. I had so many things to tell him and I wanted to say them to his face, man to man. Well more like kid to god but you get what I mean.

"Hey Luke," Ana motioned to the right towards the sky, "I don't like the looks of that." She was right, I could feel the wind start to pick up, the trees were blowing, and our bikes started to lean as we rode down the highway. I looked down the road a bit and towards the side of the road, about a block away was a funnel cloud.

"Do you see that?" Ana asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "We had better go find some shelter quick. It's too far along to try outrunning it."

We road along a bit more and down the road I spotted an old abandoned farm house. We brought the bikes inside with us and ran down to the basement with the bikes in tow. "I don't like the feeling of this place," Ana said, "something here feels wrong." I agreed with her, but this was the only place I saw and I was starting to get tense.

"Do you see a five star hotel anywhere?" I snapped back. She jumped a little, she seemed hurt. 'Oh my gosh, there goes my temper again'.

"I'm sorry," I said, I put my hand on her arm, and she yelped and tensed up like I had just snapped it. "What's wrong?" I asked, "Let me see." I only then noticed that the sleeve of her shirt was burned through. I carefully pulled it back to find an ugly burn wound on her arm.

"Is this from-"

"The Fury's whip?" she interrupted, "Yeah." It was red and blistery. The burns broke through the skin in quite a few places.

I grabbed some nectar from my bag and poured it on her arm, she winced. I dug through my bag, moving the toy snakes over, until I found some bandage wrap.

"Is that necessary?" she asked.

"I don't want it to get infected," I replied.

"But it's my best arm while sword fighting, if I can't bend it how will I defend myself, or you?" she asked.

"That's what I'm for kiddo," I said, smiling as I replied. That answer seemed to satisfy her because she started to look around the basement. I could hear the storm overhead; I looked out the small window in the corner of the basement – the tornado had started to form. "Great," I muttered. Anastasia came over to the window, she wasn't the tallest demigod I had ever met, but she definitely wasn't the shortest. She grabbed a chair and looked out. "We had better get against a wall." I nodded and we went to an alcove that had a door inside of it. I pulled on the handle, but naturally the door was locked.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Storm

Luke

Ana came to the door and fingered around it stopping when she came to a symbol. "Luke, this means something in Ancient Greek doesn't it?" she asked. I looked and sure enough it was the mark of Daedalus.

"Yes, this is an entrance to the Labyrinth."

"Do you mean Daedalus' Labyrinth? Where Theseus killed the Minotaur?" "Yeah," I replied, "But in the last war we demigods had, the Labyrinth collapsed, because Daedalus died."

"It can't disappear completely," Ana replied, "Magical works never disappear completely; there is always some bit of the work left." I didn't bother pondering how she knew that, as the storm was getting too close for comfort.

I touched my finger to the symbol and it blew open. "No way," Ana said excitedly. Obviously she had forgotten about the pain in her arm. "We had better go in," she yelled as the window blew out, "the tornado is going to be on top of us in a moment."

We grabbed our backpacks and went in. By the time we turned around the doorway was gone. The place looked so… different – in comparison to when I last saw it. "Do you have a match?" she asked. "Yeah, one sec," I reached into my pocket and pulled out a match, feeling around for her hand in the pitch black. Moments later she had lit a torch, which I had no idea where she found the dang thing. Within a few seconds the room we were in was brightly lit. There were Ancient Greek drawings on the walls. They looked like directions. Ana went up to one of the walls and started translating, "Your doom is that way," she said as she pointed down the hall. "That sounds inviting," I replied. She gave me a sarcastic smile and away we went.

It seemed like we had been traveling for a few minutes but when I looked down at my watch I was proved wrong. According to the watch we had been walking around for about five hours. "Want to stop and eat?" she asked. I don't know how she could have been hungry, with the constant shifting of the walls and floors I felt like throwing up – which is pretty pathetic for a guy who technically wasn't 100% alive.

Magically the hallway we were standing in turned into a room with a big fountain in the middle of it. The water started flowing out, covering the green mold and mildew growing along the bottom of the basin. Ana dug into our bags and pulled out the food, now somewhat crushed from the day's adventures. As we ate I decided that Chex Mix was the tastiest food I had ever eaten. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until then.

Suddenly a bright light filled the room, brighter than our torch. I jumped up and grabbed my sword just in time to have a lady yell, "Not so hasty young godling." I recognized the voice; it was Hera, Queen of the gods. Within a few moments Hera materialized in front of us, she seemed undecided on what to think of us. "Hello my lady," Ana said while bowing politely, I followed in suit. I definitely didn't want to tick off a goddess (especially this one) who could wipe me off the face of the earth in an instant.

"Hello Anastasia, Hello Luke," she said, "I can't stay long, but I wanted to help you on your journey to Camp Half-Blood."

"Why would you want to help if I'm involved?" I piped up; Ana threw me a look, not necessarily a ticked off look, but a look that said, 'watch it.'

"Don't worry, I'm not here to destroy you," Hera reassured me, "but my husband is not as easily satisfied as I am."

I swallowed what seemed to be a bunch of marbles in my throat, "What do you mean, 'not as easily satisfied'? I'm here on business with Hades."

Hera tilted her head back and laughed a bit, "Just because Hades thinks you deserve a second chance doesn't mean all of the gods agree. You and I both know we never agree on anything," she continued, "but Zeus is going to let you live, for now."

"Gee, thanks," I said while throwing a sarchastic smile.

Hera turned to Anastasia who looked a bit scared now. "You're mortal parents know you are in good hands child. They sent out the "Missing alert" so that they wouldn't have legal problems with the school, and it would look odd if they didn't report their child missing," she said while smiling at Ana.

"I understand," Ana replied, suddenly gaining some confidence that was lacking moments before. She almost seemed relieved.

"Anyways," Hera continued, "If you want to get out of here without too much of a fuss, take the next left you see."

"Thank You Lady Hera," Ana replied – I then decided that if I ever needed a diplomatic demigod I would go to Anastasia because how she kept controlled while talking to Hera I will never know. Hera has a way of… unnerving people. "You're welcome young demigods… Farewell," and with that she was gone.

"Well that went well," Ana concluded. She looked at me and started laughing, then rolling on the ground, unable to contain it. Suddenly I found myself laughing with her. After our little fit was over we packed up our belongings and headed down the hall and turned left where Hera had told us to.

"Do you feel that?" I asked. "Yeah, the wind coming from in front of us, yeah, of course I feel that." Ana looked nervous. Something was in front of us. Suddenly Ana screamed, "Run!" "What?" "Behind us," she replied. I turned quickly and running up behind us was a creature I did not want to fight. The Minotaur. We were running down the hall, looking for the 'left-turn' that Hera had promised. The Minotaur was right on our tails.

"Didn't Theseus kill that thing?!" Ana asking in a screaming tone.

"Monsters come back, just like evil they never die, they can be killed, but they always come back." She didn't seem to like my reply because she scowled and started running faster. Suddenly we came to the turn where Hera said we could escape. We ran in and-"Great!" Ana yelled, "She didn't say we would end up in a solid metal room with no exit!" I looked around and there really was no way out. Except up, there was a big opening with a really little ladder leading up to it. "Ana, the exit is up there," I said while pointing to the old looking hole in the wall. Suddenly we weren't alone in the room, the Minotaur decided to join us. It smelled like a garbage dump for rotten meat. It had mildew and mold covering it's fur. I didn't want to know where that thing slept. Yuck!

I drew my sword, "Ana, leave, and climb up the ladder!" "No!" she screamed. She grabbed her backpack and pulled out a scarf, a really long scarf. The Minotaur started coming towards me. Suddenly I understood what Ana was doing. "Now!" I screamed, she dove for the monsters legs and I swung at his head, he dodged and I missed. Ana was grabbing his legs, pulling the scarf in and out between them. The Minotaur grabbed at her wildly; obviously this big boy didn't want to go back to Tartarus any time soon, "Now!" At Ana's cue I sprinted forward and sliced through the monster's neck.

It slumped to its knees, almost squishing the newly found demigod. About 10 seconds later its body turned to dust, including its head, but a couple of its teeth stayed behind.

"Well," Ana said while standing up and dusting herself off, "that went well."

I nodded; she did well for never having any half-blood training. I bent down and picked up the teeth, putting them in my pocket. I motioned for the ladder and we grabbed our bags and headed up. Upon exiting through the tall hole in the wall that separated us from the outside world we realized we had made it. Well… nearly, we were walking out of a service entrance near the statue of Prometheus at the Rockefeller Plaza. We were in New York City.

"Almost there," I told my little friend. She pulled up the remainder of her shirt sleeve and looked at her arm in amazement, the burn was completely gone. We looked pretty good considering the fact we had just travelled across the country. Ana had tears and burn marks in her shirt and her pants were all ripped up along the seams and I didn't look much better. We started down the street walking towards the pick-up point where we were supposed to meet Argus who would bring us back to camp. You see, when I sent the Iris message, it wasn't to camp, but to Hades who then contacted Camp Half-Blood to tell them that they had a 'special delivery'. We were about a block away from where Argus was supposed to meet us. Ana stopped walking and pointed, "Argus isn't there, and no one is there to be quite blunt." I looked and sure enough she was right.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Revelation

Ana

I had a bad feeling about the pick-up place so I recommended we take a back road and check it out from behind. "Don't move!" Luke yelled, pulling me back against the wall. "There are Empousai over there," he continued, "Run!" Frankly I thought that was a stupid command, I didn't know much about Empousa, but I knew they would probably catch up with us.

We ran back down the alley and towards the bridge that would lead us to camp. Thankfully I was athletic, and Luke didn't seem to be struggling either. I turned quickly to see the two Empousa following us. "Luke! They are right behind us!" He didn't even bother turning, I think he got the message.

Suddenly a fireball whizzed by my head hitting Luke in the shoulder, he shuddered but kept running. We raced between cars that were backed up on the bridge. People were honking like crazy, whether it was at us or at the cars in front of them. Within about three minutes we were off the bridge and sprinting down the street with the Empousai . . . stopping? "Luke, look!" I yelled, he seemed about as stunned as I was, that is until we turned and looked in front of us and found out why. Then we ran even faster.

Charging down the hill to our left was the Chimera. We had about two miles to go before we got to camp, but we couldn't stay and fight it with just one sword, so we ran. It was the fastest I had ever run in my whole life, I don't know how we did it but we didn't stop.

Suddenly Luke yelled, "See that big pine tree?" I nodded, we were both still sprinting, "Get beyond its borders and you will be safe!"

"I'm not leaving you!" I replied. We stopped running once we reached the base of the hill, as the Chimera was literally a few meters behind us. It charged up the hill unable to stop itself, and a dragon at the top of the hill under the pine tree started to growl. Once the Chimera seemed to get its bearings it turned around for another go at us. Luke quickly grabbed a knife out of his backpack and threw it to me and then he threw our bags under some nearby trees. He didn't seem happy with my choice to stay but he knew we had no time to argue it. "You ready?" he asked. "You bet, let's take down this oversized Chihuahua," I replied, and to be honest I was scared to death.

The Chimera leaped towards us and Luke flung himself underneath it, ripping its skin with his blade. I jumped over the top and attacked the snake head. It screamed a bit but otherwise it seemed unfazed. I was riding the dang thing piggyback with my knife through the snakes head when suddenly it reared throwing me through the air. I landed, slamming against the pine tree at the top of the hill. I hit my back and had the wind knocked out of me momentarily but I got back up and started storming down the hill.

I heard commotion over the top of the hill, somewhere in the strawberry field below but I kept running forward towards the monster.

Luke was clinging onto the monster's back; stabbing the Chimera whenever possible. Suddenly the near dead snake head whipped around and bit Luke in the shoulder, Luke immediately fell off with a sickening thud. "No!" I screamed, too far away to help. I ran even faster and without thinking I grabbed Luke's sword and sliced the Chimera's main head off. The entire body slumped over, everything crumbling to dust except the head. I ran over to Luke who was moaning in the grass, the bite in his shoulder was bleeding everywhere. His orange Camp Half-Blood shirt was soaked in it.

I kneeled down next to him, "Luke, no, Hades he-""I did what I was supposed to do," he interrupted me, "I brought a half-blood to camp, I made amends."

"Don't think you're getting out of this mess that easily. You still have to talk with your Father," I returned.

"My Father…" Luke replied in a daze.

"Yes your Father, Hermes."

"How did you-""I could tell," I interuppted. "When you stole the bikes, and when you were able to open the door, and . . ." my voice trailed off.

A blinding light appeared above my head; inside of that light was what seemed to be a lyre with laurels surrounding it.

"The sign of Apollo . . ." Luke muttered with a slight smile, "Apollo is your Father." I looked at him dumbfounded, and then I turned and looked at the sun and yelled, "Hey, you, god of the sun, light, music, healing, prophecy, archery, Apollo, Dad! Yeah you! If you can hear me, tell me what to do. How can I help Luke?"

Nothing happened, I started growing more impatient, and Luke started getting paler. "We don't have all day here! Please!" I was about to start crying, when suddenly I knew what to do.

I put one hand on Luke's shoulder and the other hand on his forehead and I closed my eyes. I had to save him, he had to talk to his old friends, and explain things to his Dad – he couldn't die like this, not here … not now. He was all I had, my family wasn't here, all I had that made me feel at home was Luke, some half-dead kid who snuck into my house and I wasn't going to let him go back to the Underworld. Suddenly I heard him gasp and I opened my eyes. He was alive… the wound was sealed but his shirt was still soaked in blood. "Thanks Dad," I murmured.

Suddenly a bunch of kids started running down the hill behind us. Followed by a . . . centaur? Luke started to stand up, rather wobbly at first.

A boy who looked to be about 17 years old with black hair ran up to us, "Are you alright-" he asked, stopping and staring at Luke.

His eyes widened, first he looked stunned, and then he looked afraid. The other kids and the Centaur caught up to Percy and they all stood around us, just staring. Even the Centaur, who obviously was older and their leader was staring. "Anastasia, meet the family," Luke interrupted, "guys, meet Anastasia Thompson, daughter of Apollo."

"All hail Anastasia Thompson, daughter of Apollo," the Centaur broke in. He bowed and all of the surrounding kids bowed as well.

Gods now I felt awkward. "Don't worry," Luke whispered, "we're safe now."

Somehow that didn't make me feel any better. The Centaur stood up and smiled, "My name is Chiron, welcome to Camp Half-Blood". I stared at all of the kids who in turn were staring back at me and at Luke. I could tell they knew him well by the looks on their faces. "My name is Percy," the boy with the black hair said. He had sea-green eyes like mine, like they couldn't decide if they wanted to be blue or green, like fighting waves, or the sky and sea fighting with each other. There was a boy with blonde hair next to him, "My name is Jason," he said calmly. He had blue eyes that he looked like he could strike a person down with, "And this is Leo, Hazel, Frank, Piper, and Annabeth," he said while pointing at the other kids in time. The girl named Annabeth had blonde hair, unruly like mine. She was staring at Luke; she looked like she was going to start crying. "You'll learn all of the other kid's names in time," Jason continued.


	7. Chapter 7 - No Forgivness for the Guilty

Luke

There was Annabeth, my first, 'pupil'. She was trying not to tear up, I could tell, but she tried darn well to hide it. How was I going to explain this?

"Hello Percy, Annabeth, Chiron… hey Travis, Connor," I said while walking towards them, leaving my bag with Ana who was trying to hide behind me. She didn't seem as confident as she was prior to this 'reunion' of sorts.

"I suppose you are all looking for an explanation as to why I am here?" I asked to Annabeth's swift yet stern reply, "Yeah that would be nice."

"You see, I went to the Underworld, Elysium, to be exact, I didn't think I would get there, but since I did what was right in the end I was branded a hero. Anyways I had planned on returning again, being reborn, but Hades sent for me, he said that he thought I 'deserved a second chance', in _this_ life, that I shouldn't bother with another one. He said I could come back if I accomplished a mission for him, he said there was a young demigod I had to find, that would be Anastasia here who turned 16 on our way here. Anyways, I am here now, but technically I am still half-dead. I'm sure my Dad had something to do with this, but . . ." After that novel-length explanation the kids all just stared at me.

Some kids at the back of the group ran to the front, "Hey there is a man by Thalia's tree!" they yelled excitedly. We ran up the hill and to the tree, with Chiron galloping in the lead. We slowed as we reached the tree, everyone bowed respectfully, because standing under the tree was Hades, the man I made my deal with. I still didn't know why he had sent his lead Fury after us and I wasn't happy about it, but I decided not to bring it up.

"Hello . . . Luke," he said coldly. "Hello." "You did well, you accomplished what I asked, and you have earned your reward." He snapped his fingers, I was expecting to be sent back to the Underworld, but suddenly I felt… alive. "Hey," Ana said, "You aren't transparent anymore!"

All of the kids started gasping when they got to the hill and saw me. Everyone seemed nervous except for Ana, Percy, Leo, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, and Annabeth, but they wouldn't be considering what they had been through this past year. "Why are you here?" an Aphrodite kid asked me. I think Drew was her name? I just stood there, I didn't know what to say. I knew there were going to be hard feeling towards me, but . . . I wasn't prepared for them. I knew I deserved the ugly looks the other half-bloods were giving me, but I didn't want them. I wanted to curl up in the corner of camp and die. But Chiron of course was cool and collected, although he did look at me with a distinct ounce of worry. He didn't trust me either, not that I could blame him. "Chiron come with me please," Hades asked. "Of course." They wandered away; Chiron suddenly turned around and shouted, "Back to work now! Percy, show our new camper around, get her settled in. I need her to be at the Big House by 6:30" Percy nodded.

So I was left standing at the top of the hill with Percy, Annabeth, and Anastasia. Annabeth still looked like she was going to cry and like she wanted to slap me all at the same time.

"I'm so sorry Anna-"I started but she ran up to me and hugged me tighter than she had ever hugged me before before I could finish. Over her shoulder I could see Percy and Ana looking at each other awkwardly.

"I'm sorry Annabeth," I said.

"You kept your promise in the end," she interrupted, "You kept us safe and that is all that matters." "We should go," Percy said, interrupting our hug. He looked happy to see me but I knew it was just a front - he didn't trust me either and I don't think he liked seeing me hug his girlfriend. Annabeth was now 16, Percy was 17, or at least I think they were. I was able to see them sometimes… from the Underworld. That is why I knew all of the kids they were with, Jason, Piper and the rest of them. "Yeah," Annabeth said, breaking our hug. I turned Anastasia towards the entrance to Camp Half-Blood, with our bags in hand we went to tour the camp with Percy and Annabeth explaining things along the way.


	8. Chapter 8 - A Little Chat with Apollo

Percy

While walking through the camp, with Annabeth explaining everything, I had quite a bit of time to think. Was Luke really different now? Could I trust him? I felt like I could, but a part of me was still afraid that Kronos might come back. And this new kid, Anastasia; we hadn't received any new campers since the last summer solstice which was over half a year ago. And another Apollo kid? From Alaska, that can't be possible can it? The gods couldn't go to Alaska, hence the name, "The Land beyond the Gods".

How could Apollo have?... I needed to have a talk with him; now. "I have to go now," I broke into Annabeth's explanation of camp, "I have some things to take care of." "Okay," Annabeth smiled.

She looked so happy to have Luke back, I knew she had a childhood crush on him, but I knew Luke was also like a Father or older brother to her. This is the first time she looked genuinely happy in months. "We'll get her settled into the Apollo cabin and bring her to the Big House. I nodded and left.

The walk to Rachael's cave isn't that long but with the questions I had made it felt like an eternity. I knocked . . . no answer. I turned to walk away when suddenly from behind me came a voice, a male voice, "Just because no one answers doesn't mean you can't come in Cousin." I recognized that voice and I wasn't happy owner. I walked in through the curtains, and the room was well lit, and very . . . purple. I saw Apollo standing in the corner, looking over some sketches Rachael had made.

"Hello," Apollo said.

"Hi," I said, trying to remain polite.

"How? Why?" I asked. He gave me a solemn look; I could tell he felt guilty. Being the god of the sun and all most people thought he had lots of kids, but in truth he didn't. He had around 10 or so, at camp anyways, and although he wasn't always allowed to directly help his kids due to the ancient laws, he was more 'observant' than most of the other gods.

"Percy . . . for the same reason Poseidon had you," Apollo replied, "He loved your Mom just as I loved Ana's Mom. Yes, Alaska is the land beyond the gods, but it's not the land beyond love." This was the wisest statement I had ever heard Apollo say. It's not that he is a stupid god, it's just that many people underestimate him due to his normally kind attitude.

I nodded, "I understand, but how did you-?"

"Travel there?" he interrupted, "long story."

"What is your daughter's future?" I asked.

Apollo looked grim, "I wish I knew. Since she was born in a place beyond my reach I can't clearly see her future."

Apollo frowned, his golden godly hue starting to fade a bit, "I can see a bit more now that she is at Camp Half-Blood, but . . ." I nodded.

Apollo looked depressed, like he feared something that was coming. "Ana says she thinks she saw you somewhere before," I said. Apollo laughed and his golden hue started to return, "She remembers that? Wow." He didn't bother to explain what _'that'_ was, but he smiled to himself and began to walk out the opening of the cave, I followed him.

"Watch her Percy, things are about to get difficult," he said.

"Don't worry Apollo, she'll be fine." Apollo nodded confidently but with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Apollo?" I asked.

"Yes Cousin?"

"Can we trust Luke?"

Apollo smirked and said, "Percy, you will have to find out for yourself," Apollo nodded, making a face and pointing up towards the sky, motioning for me to end the conversation as Zeus doesn't like him answering questions that often. "You understand, yes?" I nodded, trying to hold in a laugh, "Yes Apollo I guess I do." I hopped Apollo was right.


	9. Chapter 9 - Talking with Chiron

Ana

They took me to the Apollo cabin, gods it was beautiful. It looked like the sun rising in the morning. The outside was bright gold; shiny, beautiful, gold. "Here we go," Annabeth said while opening the door. "Wow," was all I could squeak out. The inside was split in half in a sense, half of it was bright gold, and the other half was dark blue, covered in sparkly stars and paintings of the planets. One half obviously representing Apollo, and the other half representing his love for his little sister, Artemis. I immediately was drawn to the starry side of the room.

"Hello," a boy said, walking up to me, "Nice to meet you."

"Hi," I said while shaking his hand. "My name is Anastasia Alexander."

"Ah, a newbie," a voice said from the back of the room. I looked around at the other kids in the room; we all looked a lot alike, there were around nine or ten of us. However I saw something that worried me . . . I was the only girl.

I was in a room with a bunch of blonde haired blue-eyed boys. All except one that is, he had brown eyes and black hair, and he was watching me like a hawk. I couldn't help but wonder why he looked so different from his brothers . . . my brothers. I had nine other brothers? My blond haired brother's hair was much lighter than mine, it had less red in it, but we all had the same playful blue eyes.

Just looking at them made me want to run up to them and hug them all. "You can have this bunk," he said while leading me over to the dark side of the room.

"My name is Will Solace, I am the head man or counselor for the Apollo cabin. I was here when the 2nd Titan War started. I'll tell you all about that when the time comes," Will said excitedly.

"Titan war? I know about that. Percy Jackson," I said while pointing to Percy, "you stopped Kronos, who had possessed Luke, right?"

They all stopped talking, "Who told you that?" Percy asked, half stunned. "I," I replied. I didn't know what to say, "I have dreams . . . nightmares." Percy looked at Annabeth and they nodded.

Will grabbed my shoulder and shook it, "Don't worry, quite a few demigods have nightmares, especially Apollo kids," he added.

"I don't," the boy in the back of the room said, the boy with the black hair and dark eyes was staring right at me.

The other Apollo kids stared at each other intently, "Jake," Will broke in, sharing the darker boy's name, "Just-""What? I won't be quiet," Jake interrupted, "I didn't inherit Apollo's looks, or his gift of prophecy, nor did I inherit his gift of music. Why? What did I do wrong?"

Jake left the cabin with a scowl etched into his face. Will looked embarrassed, "You see Anastasia, not all demigods inherit talents from their godly parents, in fact some demigods inherit no 'godly' talent. Jake is one of them." I nodded, somewhat confused.

"Okay then," Luke broke in, "I'll bring you to the Big House." "I'll come too," Annabeth calmly said, but it looked like she was hyperventilating. "I have to go to archery now," Percy said, "see you all at dinner." Annabeth nodded and together Luke, Annabeth, and I headed up to the Big House.

The Big House was blue with white trim; it looked very classic, but not Grecian like the rest of the camp.

Luke opened the door, "Chiron," he said, "are you here?" "Back here Luke," Chiron replied, "Leave our new camper in the living room, I need to talk to her privately," he added from the back room.

I looked up at Luke nervously, "It's okay," he said while reading my emotions, "Chiron won't hurt you." Annabeth nodded encouragingly and they walked back out the door. I was left standing alone in an old living room.

The house smelled like old books, and I could hear old music playing in the background. I loved old music, but I'm sure the other campers didn't have the same sentiments towards it. The Leopard above the mantle moved suddenly and I jumped back almost breaking a lamp. "Watch it," Chiron said while catching the lamp, "Don't worry about him, his bark is worse than his bite," he added. I nodded.

"So you said you wanted to see me sir?" I asked. He looked puzzled for a moment as though he had forgotten why I was here, "Oh! Yes, I must inform you of some things, as well as ask you some questions, the answers to which are pertinent to your survival." I didn't like the way he said that. "My survival?" I asked. "Yes," Chiron said, "You didn't think just because you got here the monsters would stop chasing you did you?"

I shook my head. "Good then, now you are 16 years old am I correct?" I nodded, "now is it true you were born in Alaska?" I nodded again. He seemed to get a bit tense at my reply. "We have . . . never had a demigod from Alaska before, besides Hazel but she isn't a permanent resident here, as it is the land beyond the gods."

"Why?" I asked.

"The gods power doesn't reach to Alaska, it is sort of enemy territory, _how_ Apollo, your father, got there and had a kid there, let alone _why_ he had a kid there is beyond my understanding."

I nodded, I was beginning to understand, but by the way Chiron said that it almost made me feel like I was a mistake; like I shouldn't have been born. If I wasn't as scared and timid as I was I would have started crying. I was pulled away from my family, my mortal family, I almost died, I almost lost the only friend I had, and now I had a . . . centaur telling me I shouldn't have been born. I could tell Chiron was nice, and he was only looking after me in telling me these things, but I couldn't help but wish I had stayed home.

"How are you holding up so far?" Chiron said, obviously reading my mind.

"Oh," I casually replied, "just fine, I just . . . well, I'm sure you have heard every excuse imaginable as to why someone would want to leave here." He nodded understandingly, with his millennia old eyes watching me intently, "You miss your family I suppose," he said.

I nodded, "Yeah. Can I ask a question?"

"Shoot."

"Well you see," I said, "Luke said that Hades let him come back if he got me here safely, but Hades seemed to try quite hard when we were out there to get us killed."

Chiron nodded and motioned for me to continue. "Why did Hades want to get me here, and after that why did he try to kill us?" I asked.

Chiron looked puzzled but replied, "Apollo and Hades have gotten along quite well – except for during WWII – but I suppose he wanted to give Luke a challenge, make him earn his reward." Chiron seemed unsure in his answering.

"You know there's something else to it don't you?" I replied. The old, ageless centaur looked surprised by my answer, "Maybe, but let's not jump to any conclusions-""My father doesn't know what to think of me does he?" I asked, suddenly wishing I hadn't interrupted, ask anyone who knows me, my 'fatal flaw' is that sometimes I talk when I shouldn't, and when I should talk I don't.

"What do you mean child?" he replied understandingly. I could feel anger boiling up inside of me, not at Chiron, heck I don't know how anyone could ever get mad at him, but it was like something or someone was making me get mad. "He can't read my future," I replied, "I can feel it. He doesn't know what to think of me."

Chiron put his hand to his beard and said, "Do you hate him?" I wasn't expecting that question; "No, he's my Dad, how could I hate him?"

"You'll find many demigods hate their godly parent. They are never around, gods know sometimes they watch their kids, but they have duties to attend." I smirked, "What are you trying to do, make me hate him?" "No, I just want you to know _why_ your Father wasn't always there when you may have needed him." I understood what Chiron was telling me, I didn't like the fact my Dad wasn't around, a part of me disliked him for that, but another part of me knew Apollo must have a hard enough time with his duties. Wanting him to visit me made me feel selfish.

"Go to dinner now," Chiron said, breaking my train of thought in the process, "the kids will tell you what to do. Tell Mr. D I will be a bit late, I have to talk with someone." I nodded and walked out of the Big House, closing the vintage looking door behind me. It was then that I remembered, 'Where do we eat?' I wandered around, not being able to find it for about five minutes when suddenly I saw something move behind one of the cabins. It was a dark cabin; it was pitch-black with . . . green fire.

"Hello," a voice said. I spun around trying to figure out where the voice came from. Suddenly a boy walked out from behind the cabin, he had black hair, deathly white skin, even paler than mine, and his eyes seemed pure black as I could barely distinguish where the pupil and the iris met.

"Hi," I said timidly – I may be a demigod now, but my mortal parents told me never to talk to strangers. "My name is Nico," the boy, Nico said. "You're Italian," I replied. He smiled a strange creepy smile, yet it was still friendly, "Yes I am, as are you," he responded with a smirk.

"Part Italian," I said correcting him, "and I have a temper that fits it. My name is Anastasia," I replied, suddenly feeling more at ease around this pale yet dark boy. He was tall, yet not too tall, but he looked quite frail. However . . . I have learned to never let looks deceive me. "Looking for the dining pavilion?" Nico asked. "Yes," I replied, "I'm assuming you know where it is?" Nico nodded with a smile, "Come with me."


	10. Chapter 10 - Annabeth & Luke

Annabeth

I sat through the beginning of dinner just staring at Luke over at the Hermes table. He looked a little awkward, like he didn't know what to do or say. I couldn't blame him, but I hoped his siblings weren't giving him too much trouble over the Kronos debacle. Sure, what he did was wrong, but in the end he sacrificed himself to save all of us, including the rest of the world. We owed him, yet he owed us. Suddenly Luke looked up at me, his blue eyes sparkling, he looked happy. He waved and I felt myself blush.

I mean . . . I had a major crush on him when I was younger; he was like a big brother to me, but more than that. Admittedly I still had a crush on him, but I was already taken and content with it.

Suddenly a big crash rang across the hall, I looked up and a kid had dropped his plate in front of a girl standing in the doorway. It was the new girl, Anastasia. For a moment I thought I saw Nico standing next to her. But after we found out about Nico . . . well we didn't see him much anymore. Her hair looked like it was molten gold in the sunset. She looked a tad nervous but she stood like a statue. More than anything it looked like she wanted acceptance, she wanted to fit in. I can't say I don't know how she felt. Demigods out in the 'wild' tend to cause havoc, normally unintentionally. We attract attention both bad and good from both humans and monsters. If I rattled off the names of some demigods . . . in 'higher places' you would recognize them. Although there are quite a few of us, there really aren't that many.

Will Solace over at the Apollo table ran up to her, "Come on Ana," he said, "I'll get you settled in at the Apollo table. How did you manage to find your way here; we were beginning to wonder what happened to you."

Ana replied, "A pale boy-""Oh, it doesn't matter," Will said interrupting her, "What's important is that you're here."

"Come on," Will said, taking Ana's hand and bringing her to the Apollo table. She looked like she was going to have a harder time settling in here, she would handle it, but some demigods have a hard time being taken away from their parents.


	11. Chapter 11 - Dinnertime

Ana

"One sec Will, Chiron gave me a message for Mr. D," I said. Will nodded and I walked over to Mr. D who looked a bit like a grape, I immediately felt intimidated just standing next to him. As I approached the table I felt like I was going mad.

Upon arriving at his table, I looked up, trying to make myself look taller, "Mr. D?" I asked. He looked down, at first looking annoyed, then his gaze softened, "Oh, you're the new camper, I suppose you want something?" he asked.

"No sir, Chiron told me to tell you he will be late to dinner, he has to go talk with someone, a meeting," I replied.

Mr. D looked at me somewhat suspiciously, "A meeting?" he asked again.

"Yes sir," I replied.

"Thank you for informing me, you may go eat," he stated, looking distracted.

I turned and walked toward Will who brought me to the Apollo table and the kids to his right moved over, making room for me next to Will. They sure were trying hard to make me feel welcome . . . everyone that is except the darker boy. I couldn't blame him though, I mean . . . having all the bad stuff associated with being a demigod happening to you but getting none of the good, inheriting no distinguishable godly talents? I would be angry too.

When I first walked into the Apollo cabin I was surprised to see tons of boys looking at me. We all looked a bit alike, some of them had white blonde hair, others had dirty blonde hair, some had creamy blonde hair, but as far as I could I see I was the only kid at the table with red-blonde hair. When I was in the . . . normal world people would come up to me and ask if they could touch my hair, I suppose it was a bit of a novelty, and that novelty hadn't worn off even in Camp Half-Blood.

"Your hair," one of my brothers to me left said, "Oh I'm sorry where are my manners, my name is Samuel, and it's just that your hair . . . I've never seen anything like it before."

The other kids nodded in unison. "Dad must have really liked you," one kid said laughing, I could tell he was trying to be friendly, but I felt my face turn red, and since I have paler skin I knew everyone could see me blushing.

Will thankfully changed the subject, "So how about we introduce ourselves starting from the left, "My name is Anthony-""Michael-""Aegeas-"""Samuel-""Austin-""Ma ttias-""Thomas-""Pericles-""Alcaeus-""Alexios-""An d I'm Will, but you already know me," he said with a smile.

Jake, the darker boy wasn't there; there was an empty space left at the other end of the table, and empty plates which I knew belonged to him.

"Jake doesn't like eating here," Will said, as if he could read my mind. Although since he was an Apollo kid I wouldn't put it past him. We were a strange bunch, we are all good archers, some of us – myself included – are better at sword play, and some of us work well with spears. They taught me how to eat off of my plates (telling the plate what you want), I went to the fire and threw some in, and dinner was over before we knew it. At the campfire the Apollo cabin led the songs, naturally, and we did quite well if I say so myself.


	12. Chapter 12 - Meeting My Dad

Luke

I went to the Apollo cabin and made sure Ana was settled in for the night, which she was. I underestimated her that's for sure. While walking to my cabin I heard something behind me, I turned around and nothing was there. I turned back to my cabin and kept going forward, but it seemed like the road was getting longer, so I started running, before I knew it I ran into a man's chest and fell on my back.

"Luke," the man said calmly, offering me his hand. I looked up, it was still dark so I couldn't quite make out who was in front of me, but I had a slight suspicion from his voice. I recognized the warm, kind tone. It was my Dad. "Dad?" I asked, looking up and taking his hand.

He pulled me up and he looked happy I had accepted his hand. He looked a bit . . . nervous, and I think he could tell I was nervous about this meeting as well. I only realized we were still holding hands when I could feel my hand sweating, I released as did my Dad, and I looked at the ground somewhat embarrassed. I could feel my face turning red, but thankfully it was dark and my father couldn't see it, but I'm sure he knew.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I guess…" I replied. He looked disappointed in my answer.

"Would you come with me?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied. We walked along the path to the water. We walked to the edge of the boat dock and my father sat down with his legs dangling off of the side towards the water. I sat down and joined him.

"Luke I have to tell-""Dad, don't talk. I…" I paused unsure of myself. I had spent most of my life telling my Dad I hated him, I truly didn't, I was mad at him, but . . . I couldn't hate him.

He turned from me and looked out at the sea. "Dad, I don't . . . hate you. I never have." I looked away from him but out of the corner of my eye I could see him look at me.

"I was angry at you," I continued, "but I could never hate you."

I couldn't believe I had just said that, "I understand if you don't like me Dad, I deserve that now, but please know I don't hate you. I'm sorry if . . . I hurt you," I continued while starting to cry.

"Luke I don't hate you. I love you, you're my son," my Dad said, breaking the momentary awkward silence between us.

"I…" I felt the words choking up in the back of my throat, "Why do you say that Dad?" I asked. I was about to stand up and walk away but Hermes grabbed my arm and pulled me back down, gently, to the deck.

"Luke, you're my son," he said. I could feel tears rolling down my cheeks, "I will always love you," he concluded.

"Dad, I don't want your love!" I said immediately feeling bad. I wanted his love, but I didn't deserve it. My Dad was one of the kinder gods, especially when it came to his children. He visited all of his kids from time to time, but I wanted something more than that. I wanted something I couldn't have.

Hermes didn't look fazed by my answer, "Luke, you may not want my love but you need it and I am giving it to you," he said while wiping the tears from my cheeks. He looked like he was going to start crying himself. I threw my arms around him, grabbing his shirt in my hands. I couldn't control myself any longer. The tension from all those years of pain and suffering, of being alone and afraid were let out that moment. I was hugging him, crying, and making sounds that a baby does, but that didn't seem to faze my Dad.


	13. Chapter 13 - Hermes POV: My Son

Hermes

Luke threw his arms around me. I wasn't expecting it to be honest. When he threw his arms towards me I thought he was going to hit me, yes perhaps I would have deserved that but when he hugged me I had no choice.

I hugged him back. He was crying into my shirt, "Ssh Luke, it's alright," I said calmly, stroking his back. He was over twenty years old now but he was crying like a baby, and in truth, I didn't mind. He was my baby, and nothing was going to change that. I actually liked it. It was my chance to be his Dad.

"I'm so sorry Dad," he sobbed into my shirt which was wet from his tears.

"It's alright, we all do things we wish we wouldn't have done myself included. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you," I said. In the moonlight his hair looked like silvery gold. He let up with the tears for a moment, pulling his face from my shirt and wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

"Here," I said, handing him a blue handkerchief from my pocket. He took it and blew his nose.

"I love you Dad," Luke said calmly but still sobbing.

"I love you too son."

Before I knew it we were hugging again. We hugged and cried for a good twenty minutes before he calmed down.

"Luke?" I asked. He didn't reply, "Luke?" I asked shaking him a bit. He was asleep. I hadn't seen him looking so peaceful since he was a baby. I picked him up, holding him against my chest and I started walking back to the cabin, it was around midnight and I was surprised the cleaning harpies hadn't found us yet. Luke started snoring; he always did when he was really tired. It made me wish I had been around when he was younger. The way he was sleeping in my arms made me hope for many things. With his head crooked between my arm and my chest I felt that he was safe and that is how I had always wanted him to be.

'His mother,' I thought to myself, 'She will want to know he is back.' Since Hades' curse was off of Apollo's oracle, it could go easily into another girl, that girl being Rachael Elizabeth Dare, so now May was free. When I told her of Luke's death she was silent for a few minutes, and then she started screaming. That was all over, but I still had my doubts on how this journey would end.

When I first met May I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, and her upturned little nose. She was the love of my life, well of my godhood anyways. When Luke came along it seemed like a dream, a fairy tale, and I knew the storybook ending every parent wishes for wouldn't come to be. When May made her decision to try accepting the Oracle I knew that was the end, but I didn't want to believe it. I did everything in my power besides killing her to make her see sense but to no avail.

Only I knew how much I loved my boy, most of the other gods probably couldn't even comprehend it, and no one was going to take him from me again.


	14. Chapter 14 - Mr D on Defense

Ana

It was morning in the Apollo cabin; I woke up with the sun, my father and his chariot, blazing through the sky. I couldn't see him or the chariot but I knew they were there. I had a nightmare, naturally, and all I could think of was how off I felt here at my new home. The nightmare was much more vivid than most nights. But I felt great considering everything that had taken place in the days before though.

Suddenly I heard what sounded like a conch horn in the distance. All of the other Apollo kids jumped up in unison, some of them banging their heads on the bunk above them.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Emergency meeting," Will replied, "Everyone get dressed and get over to the dining area." We didn't waste any time. We threw on our shirts and pants, my brothers had set up a changing area for me in the back of the cabin since I was their only female sibling present. Will had mentioned something about another sister Kayla being missing, but he wouldn't tell me anymore. I guess it hurt too much.

We ran down to the dining area and to my surprise we all stayed at the same pace. When I went to school I beat most of the boys and girls I came up against, I figured it was my genetics giving me the advantage at the time, oh only the gods know how right I was.

Upon arriving Chiron was sitting next to Mr. D at the head table.

"Sit down demigods," he ordered, an order which we all obeyed. "As you know Lord Hades was here yesterday," Chiron announced. All of the kids around me nodded at his statement, "well it appears . . . Lord Hades is now missing," he concluded.

"What?" Luke asked.

"We aren't sure yet how he disappeared or why, but that is why I was not present at dinner last night. I had an emergency meeting at Olympus with just Lord Zeus and Lord Poseidon," Chiron continued.

"Kronos…" I muttered meaning it for myself alone to hear.

"Pardon me?" Chiron asked looking right at me. I looked up, half-stunned as I had no idea what to say, yet I did know what had to be said.

"Kronos is coming back," I said firmly, "or at least he is trying to". Every jaw in the pavilion dropped and there was absolute silence.

"How do you know who Kronos is?" a boy at the Dionysus table asked.

"I . . . I have nightmares, I have since I was little. There is normally a strange figure in my dreams, or a strange voice. I was never told this, but I know his name is Kronos," I concluded.

"Impossible," a Hermes boy said looking at Luke, "We fought Kronos' army last year; Percy killed him, Luke…" Suddenly all eyes in the room were on Luke.

"You are here as Kronos' spy!" an Aphrodite girl screamed pointing at Luke. Suddenly the entire pavilion erupted in shouts of anger, voices of reason, and just plain chaos. Luke looked stunned, his face was bright red.

"Shut up!" I yelled. I couldn't stand the fact everyone was blaming Luke. I didn't know him for long, but we almost died multiple times. We had to work together to survive and I could trust him.

"Luke no longer works for Kronos!" I yelled.

An Ares boy replied, "You barely know him! We fought him-""That was then, and I know him quite well," I replied trying to calm down.

I probably should have said something earlier, but as I said before I have nightmares like many demigods. Well I had seen Luke in these nightmares; I was just too embarrassed to say anything as Luke would eventually find out and . . . well . . . dreaming about boys sounds odd.

"What do you mean, 'you know him quite well'?" the Ares boy repeated mimicking my voice.

"She's working with Kronos too!" an Aphrodite girl screamed.

"Well that escalated quickly," one of my brothers muttered. The room then erupted. I couldn't distinguish what anyone was saying as I was mad and getting madder yet. How could they accuse me of this and why would they? O was new here, and I would never... I wanted to cry, to shrink away into a corner or hide under a rock.

"Silence!" Mr. D yelled. He looked like he was about to assume his true immortal form and we all cowered. His normally sarcastic eyes were fiery bright purple, and he looked ready to kill all of us if we didn't shut up.

"We will not be pointing fingers at anyone in this camp!" he continued. He walked from his chair and down to the camper's tables. He kept walking . . . until he came to the Apollo table.

"Anastasia?" he asked, "Are you working with Kronos?"

"No sir," I replied.

He nodded in an affirmative manner, "I believe her, and anyone who doesn't may come see me in the Big House and explain their reasoning with evidence of their accusations. If you come with a petty excuse as to why you think she is working with Kronos, I will kill you".

_'Did a god just stand up for me?'_ I thought to myself. I would make sure I wouldn't tick this god off.


	15. Chapter 15 - Chiron Understands

Alright, now as most demigods that have been through Camp Half-Blood in the past five years know, Mr. D is normally a sarcastic pain in the neck type of god. He almost never openly supports a demigod, especially a new one. This was a first for almost everyone in camp. Annabeth stood up and walked over to my table, sitting herself down next to me. Obviously she was planning on staying throughout the whole meal because she brought her plate and cup.

"Do you know what's going on?" she asked.

I shrugged, "I know just as much as you do, AKA – nothing." She seemed like she was expecting that answer.

"I have a feeling there is going to be a quest," she continued.

"A quest, heck I don't even want to hear the word 'quest'. Not after…" I trailed off.

"Percy we survived Tartarus. We're demigods, this type of thing is our job," she replied with a somewhat scolding tone. "Look," she continued, "Most people would die to be like us, not to fight monsters necessarily, but because we are special and we have a purpose. I know it sounds odd to us but if you asked a mortal if they wanted to be a demigod their answer would be yes Percy."

"Yes but Nico-""Nico has forgiven you. You didn't . . . abandon him," Annabeth said.

I had never thought of it that way before. "I suppose," I replied, "This is going to sound . . . 'off' Annabeth, but I'm tired."

Her eyes opened wide and she looked like she wanted to hit me. Her face started turning red but she started taking deep breaths and she calmed down. She sighed and she said, "Me too."

I turned to my left towards the head table where Chiron and Mr. D sit along with any important people or gods who may come to camp and Chiron was looking right at Annabeth and I. Both the head table and the Poseidon were within earshot of each other but I had never thought . . . Chiron had overheard our whole conversation.

I looked a little further to the left of Chiron and Mr. D was watching us too. They had both heard. Chiron stood up, getting out of his wheelchair and he trotted outside motioning for both Annabeth and I to follow him. We hadn't eaten anything but none of us were hungry. There was too much to think about.

Chiron cantered down to the training arena with Annabeth and me in close pursuit. Once we got into the arena he shut the gate and sat us down on a bench at the side of the arena wall. He looked sad as he did so. "What's wrong?" he asked calmly.

"Chiron, I don't know what you heard back there but . . . we're tired," I said calmly. I really was tired, I needed a break. I knew that both Annabeth and I would be the first people they would go to for any quest to recover Hades, and in truth it's not that I didn't want to go, it's that I didn't have the mental strength left to do something like that again.

Chiron nodded; he looked like he was a bit tired too. I mean, if I was a 3,000 or so year old centaur who had to babysit demigods and was worrying about them all the time, well . . . I couldn't handle that. I don't know how Chiron did.

"I understand. Mr. D and I were talking and we have decided we don't want you to go on the quest we are planning," Chiron concluded.

Annabeth looked relieved but disappointed, "But Chiron," she tried interrupting.

"No buts Annabeth. I'm going to keep you both here so you can get back in fighting shape, take a break, and so that I can keep an eye on you too. No more disappearing into Tartarus anymore got it?" Chiron concluded.

"Got it," I replied. Annabeth nodded and we both sat back into the bench, relieved from our duties.

"But Chiron," Annabeth interrupted, "Who will lead the quest to find Hades?"

Chiron looked puzzled for a moment, "I don't know. We will consult Rachael I suppose."


	16. Chapter 16 - The Prophecy

Will

I'd had this odd feeling throughout Chiron's whole discussion. Hades was missing, yet I felt another part of the camp was gone as well.

"Hazel," I muttered. She wasn't at dinner, and trust me; Hazel never misses a meal. I'd had a bad feeling the entire day, but I didn't say anything. I could feel that Hazel wasn't in the camp, being a son of Apollo. I could sense something wasn't right.

"Mr. D," I yelled from my table. We were still in the dining pavilion while, minus Annabeth, Chiron, and Percy. All of the kids in the pavilion looked up.

"Yes?" Mr. D replied with an annoyed look on his face.

"Hazel is gone," I said.

"I know," Piper piped up from the Aphrodite table, "I haven't seen her since yesterday, since . . . Hades went missing."

That did it. The room sprang into an uproar, and despite Mr. D's attempts at calming everyone down, nothing changed. Luke sat at his table, his face turning red in embarrassment. I don't think he had anything to do with Hades' or Hazel's disappearance, but he wasn't doing much to prove his innocence.

Suddenly Rachael walked into the pavilion. She didn't look good. She fell onto her side and started to convulse. A girl ran in with a stool and sat Rachael up on it. Her eyes started to glow green, "Luke . . . Will . . . Anastasia come forth," Rachael said. They did as she commanded.

_"Three shall go north, _

_Then shall come the fourth. _

_To find the Lord of the Dead, _

_And to unsheathe the Spearhead." _

She fell off of the stool and went to sleep on a rug towards the front of the pavilion. Chiron, Annabeth, and Percy were standing behind her.

"Well it's settled then," Chiron continued, "Luke, Will, Ana . . . you're going on the quest to find Hades, the Lord of the Dead."

"And Hazel," Mr. D concluded. Chiron nodded solemnly. "That's no fair!" a voice yelled from the Ares table. I recognized it as Clarisse.

"Ana is new she'll get herself killed, and Luke has already had a quest!" Clarisse continued in outrage.

"No arguing," Chiron interrupted, "the oracle has chosen, so that is final." "But-""No buts Clarisse, Will and Luke will take care of Ana," Chiron said looking towards Luke and Will for approval.

"Yes we will," I said, "I'll keep my little sister out of trouble if it kills me." I pulled Ana towards me and rubbed my hand through her hair making it messy. She pushed me away with a sisterly shove and I started to chuckle a bit.

Luke stepped towards the us rather protectively, "When do we leave?" he asked. "Tonight, after dinner and I will have Argus drive you into town." We three chosen ones nodded and left the pavilion.


	17. Chapter 17 - Luke Fits Armor

Ana

"Luke!" I yelled running after him. He was heading towards the Hermes cabin to pack as Chiron had ordered. "Luke!" I screamed again. He took notice of me and he turned around, "Yes Ana?" He didn't look happy, but I can't say I was either.

"What do I pack? Where are we going? What-""Calm down kiddo. We're going north, so pack warm clothing. As you heard you, Will, and I are going on the quest to find Hades. I guess we need to get you fitted with a weapon don't we?"

I nodded, "Well I don't have one yet if that is what you mean," I concluded. "Okay," Luke said, "go get packed and meet me in front of the armory storage shed." I nodded and we both went our separate ways.

When I got to the Apollo cabin Will was the only kid in there. He was sitting on his bed looking at a picture.

"Your family?" I asked. "Yeah," he replied, "I haven't seen them in two years."

'Two years?' I thought to myself. I couldn't stand not seeing my family for two whole years. I went to my drawer and packed up almost everything I had unpacked the night before. My backpack didn't seem quite as full as it did the day before.

"Are you ready Ana?" Will asked. "Yeah, but I have to go meet Luke at the armory first," I replied.

While walking towards the armory I saw Nico leaning against a tree, somewhat hiding in the shadows. He saw me and yelled, "Ana I need to give you some information." For some reason Nico looked a bit . . . dead.

I nodded and walked in his direction. "You are going to Canada," Nico stated, "to be exact you are going to Matagami."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I'm Hades son, and since I can feel everything that happens under the ground, I can tell you where he is," Nico concluded.

"You're saying he is underground?" I asked.

"Yes," Nico continued, "And Hazel is with him."

I nodded. "So why aren't you going on the quest?" I asked. "The Fates choose who they choose. There's nothing I can do about it."

"Thanks Nico," I said.

"You're welcome," he replied, "stay out of trouble." He flashed me a smile and walked away.

I continued towards the armory finding Luke waiting for me. "There you are," he said, "I thought maybe you weren't coming."

"Oh I wouldn't miss this for the world."

We went inside and he led me to the body armor section first. "You're pretty small," Luke said, "I'd give you a size one, but I don't think it is big enough for your arms."

I gave him a look. "Not that your arms are big, they're just muscular for a girl," he continued.

"Nice save Luke," I laughed out. "To be honest I think you would be better off in male body armor," he stated.

I nodded somewhat agitatedly. You see I didn't mind not being built like a female, I am a bit muscular, yet I am still petite. However at the same time I don't like it when boys point that out. It makes me feel . . . awkward.

"Here try on this suit. It's a size two," Luke said, breaking my train of thought. I put it on, strapped it into place, and looked in the mirror. "It looks like you were made for it," Luke said.

"Yeah I guess it does," I replied. It was bronze colored with gold trimmings in the shape of laurels and suns. I walked to the window at the end of the cabin and I stood in the light from the setting sun.

"Wow," Luke said. The gold trimming literally glowed in the sunlight. There was a golden haze around me. "It'll do," I said quite happy with the way it looked. "Perfect for an Apollo kid and now for your sword," Luke said.

We walked over to the weapons rack and Luke measured my arm. "I think these may work," he said, pointing to a specific sword size. One in particular caught my eye. It was bronze, but it had a gold sun on the hilt.

"This is the one," I said.

"You haven't even tried it out yet," Luke said while laughing.

"Trust me," I replied. I picked it up and swung it around, and sure enough . . . it fit me like a glove.

"Wow," Luke said half-dazed, "I've never seen anyone pick the perfect one on the first try."

"Luck I guess," I replied, while staring at the sword.

"Let's go," Luke said. We walked out of the armory into the courtyard. Will was waiting for us with Chiron. "Ready?" Will asked. "Yeah," Luke said and I nodded. "Let's go to Argus then," Chiron chimed in.

Argus was waiting for us at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill with one of the camp vans.

"Where are we going exactly?" Will asked.

"Canada," I replied, "Matagami, Canada. It's in Quebec to be precise."

"How did you know that?" Chiron asked.

"A . . . fourth link told me," I concluded.

Chiron smirked and nodded, "I see. Well then you'd better get on your way."

We started climbing in the van when Annabeth and Percy came running down the hill, "Wait!" Annabeth yelled. We got out of the van and Annabeth pulled something out of her shirtsleeve. "Here Luke," she said, "Take this. You'll need it more than I will." She handed him a long bronze knife. It looked new with only slight signs of age on it. "Thanks Annabeth," Luke replied.

Percy came up to Will and I and he handed us each an odd looking seashell. "These may come in handy," Percy said. "Thanks," I replied. "Stay safe," Annabeth called as we drove down the road. Will, Luke, and I waved out the back window and Percy, Annabeth, and Chiron waved back. We were on our way.


	18. Chapter 18 - Meet the Empousai

Luke

Argus dropped us off at the bus stop near the Empire State Building. I saw Ana look up when we drove up to the building.

"He's up there," I said, "Your Father that is."

She nodded, "I know. I just…"

"Wonder what he thinks of you?" I cut in.

"Yeah," she said.

"Don't worry, he has no reason to hate you," I assured her.

"I . . . I guess so," she replied half-heartedly.

"Thanks Argus," I said, turning around to thank him but he was already gone. "Come on," I said, leading them all to the bus stop. The bus arrived and we piled on. "Everybody have everything?" I asked. They both nodded. "Luke," Ana whispered, "Can't they see the armor we have on?" I chuckled, "No, the Mist conceals it. They probably see it as large jackets." She nodded, "You're joking right?" Will and I shook our heads in response. "Wow," was all she could say.

We rode along for about two hours with no problem whatsoever. Ana fell asleep in her seat; her sword looked like an umbrella to the mortals. I found that out because some old lady came up to me asking why we all had umbrellas. While she slept I started to really look at her armor. There were golden suns and laurels perfectly placed about it, with one large golden sun in the middle. They really did glow. Apollo must have made it himself, or at least specially ordered it from Hephaestus. My armor was dark bronze with simple silver trimming. Will on the other hand, as he was also a child of Apollo had bronze armor with golden trim, and one sun on each shoulder like a generals bars. Our swords were completely our own as well. My sword was Backbitter, naturally. Will had a generic camp sword as he received a gold archer's bow from his father Apollo. Anastasia didn't look like much of an archer to me. She was perfectly suited to her sword. I looked at the hilt and in letters etched in gold was, "Anax"; Ancient Greek for "Leader". The sword had belonged to Alexander the Great, son of Zeus. I'm pretty sure the armor was his too as it was a bit too big on Ana. I couldn't help but become mesmerized by the sword and armor's beauty. It's not often you see metal working like that.

"Luke how far along are we?" Will asked, breaking my train of thought.

"I think we're in Montpelier," I replied. "Will," I said, "Did your father ever mention the fact you had another sister?"

Will seemed puzzled for a moment, "No, he didn't. Although I've only seen Apollo a couple times, so it's not like he has _'time'_ to tell me these things," he replied with a ticked off look on his face. He was a bit angry at his godly parent, like most demigods. Will fell asleep again, and I followed his example a couple minutes later.

I woke up about two hours later, Ana was shaking my shoulder. "Luke," she said quietly, "We just picked up two passengers at the last bus stop."

"Where are they?" I asked.

"Right behind us," she whispered in my ear.

I suddenly felt a lump grow in my throat. I tried looking behind me, but whoever or whatever was there seemed to be looking at me. "Oh gods," I said. Will went for his weapon which was at his side.

"No wait," I whispered commandingly, "I got this." I stood up reaching for my sword, making sure it was there and I pretended to go to the restroom. Upon getting past the new passengers behind us I realized . . . they weren't human. They were Empousai. Wonderful.

I walked up to the lead Empousai pulling a brochure from the rack on the bus wall, "Would you like to learn about plants at the Yuri Muri's Botanical Gardens?" I asked innocently. I was trying to figure out if they were hear to hunt for us.

"Oh, let me see," the Empousa with blonde hair said.

"Yes I think we would," the second Empousa said after looking at the brochure, "thank you." I nodded and went back to my seat.

"Whew, that was close," I whispered. "What is it?" Ana replied looking nervous. "Empousai, but they don't know we are . . . you know."

"I got this," Will said while starting to sneeze, "Achoo!" He continued sneezing for about thirty seconds before he talked again, "Sorry guys, I'm highly allergenic to perfume."

"We need to switch seats," Ana said. Only then was I starting to catch on to what they were trying to accomplish. I stood up and said rather loudly, "Okay, we'll have to switch seats if you are allergic to perfume." I reached for our bags which were stored in the overhead compartments.

"Excuse me ladies," I said to the Empousai.

"That's okay, I understand," the blonde Empousa replied, "I have allergies too." We took our belongings and walked toward the front of the bus and selected three empty seats in a row. I put our bags away and we settled in. "Well that was close," Ana said, "By the way Will that was brilliant."

"I know," Will replied, "I am a genius." Ana smirked, "Don't push it brother-""Lights out!" The bus driver yelled while hitting the main switch on the bus dashboard. "Gods, he's almost as bad as Chiron," Will said while chuckling. Besides the Empousai on the back of the bus, who for some reason couldn't smell the ichor in our blood, the trip was going surprisingly well.


	19. Chapter 19 - The Death

Will

Sure I wasn't happy with my Dad for throwing a sister at me when . . . Never mind. It's a long story. I was the only one awake, and it was around three in the morning on the bus, which by then was starting to stink. We were in Canada, and in total we were only a few hours from our destination, Matagami. My sister was sleeping, leaning against me, and Luke was sleeping, leaning against her. I was stuck with the window seat so the only thing I had to lean against was a cold pane of glass. I thought of my family . . . or what was left of it anyways. Ana started to shake again, she had been doing it all night. I hadn't told her but she also thrashed around in her bed during her first night at Camp Half-Blood. Suddenly she jumped up hitting her head on my nose. "Sorry!" she whispered frantically. She looked like she was crying, or at least like she had been. "It's okay, no harm done," I replied. I could feel my nose pulsating in the darkness.

"I'm really sorry about that," Ana said again, obviously feeling guilty.

"Your nightmares, they come true don't they?" I asked. Her face dropped, "How do you-""It's okay," I interrupted, "quite a few demigods have nightmares, however the Apollo kid's nightmares tend to be prophetic, however mine aren't neither are my brothers. I suspect that one of your gifts from Dad."

She gave me a face of disgust, "You call nightmares a gift? I fall out of bed, I barely sleep most nights. How is that a gift?" I put my arm around her shoulder sympathetically, "I know it's hard, but that's part of being a demigod. These . . . prophecies you see, they help us on quests, and they warn us of people's futures and people to avoid," I said as positively as I could. "Don't worry," I continued, "We can ask Morpheus, the god of sleep and dreams, for some help. Now try to sleep some more," I continued. "Okay," Ana said, "Thanks Will." I smiled and she leaned back in her seat and dozing off. She was back and leaning on my shoulder again five minutes later. I fell asleep then as well as I finally felt a little warmer.

At around 5:00 in the morning the bus driver yelled something over the intercom, waking everyone on the bus up.

"What did you say?" one of the mortal passengers asked. The bus driver looked a bit ticked because we hadn't heard him, "I said we are one hour away from Matagami!"

'Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the seat,' I thought to myself. I couldn't help but begin to think of the Empousai at the back of the bus. What if they were waiting to attack us until once we got off, that way we would be farther away from camp? Luke nudged me, "Something doesn't feel right," he whispered in my ear.

"I know," I replied, "this trip has gone so . . . smoothly. I just feel like something really bad is going to happen." Luke nodded.

Ana started to wake up, "Where are we?" she asked. "About an hour away," I replied. "Sleep well?" I asked jokingly. "Yeah," Ana replied, "just great." The sun was beginning to rise in the distance. It made the sky glow with a golden hue, "Hi Dad." I muttered. Not that he actually cared. I was beginning to feel bitterer towards him by the day. Ana looked a lot like him, although I had no one else to compare her to as I had never met her Mother or mortal Father. I had never thought of it before but normally when a quest is issued at camp, there are never siblings on the same quest, like on ours. The ADHD part of me couldn't help thinking, 'Hey we're all blondes . . . sort of.'

An hour later we were let off at the bus station at Matagami. "Now where?" Ana asked. "To eat," Luke replied. We walked to a small deserted looking restaurant across the street from the bus stop and sat down in a booth. We were the only people in there and I could understand why. The place was a dump, but at the time I didn't care as I was too hungry. A lady with sunglasses and a turban came out from behind the counter dressed in clothing that looked like it was from the 1950's.

"Here are your menus," the lady said, "My name is Maddie, and I will be your waitress today." We took the menus and took a quick look through. "I'll have a burger," Luke said. "And you Anastasia?" the lady asked. I hadn't bothered to wonder how she knew Ana's name. "Um . . . pizza I guess?" Ana replied. "Sure thing," Maddie said. I thought for a moment, "I'll have a burger too," I replied while trying to act casual. "Alright, I'll be back in a minute," Maddie the waitress said cheerfully. "Something doesn't feel right," Luke said with a bit of worry in his voice. "What doesn't feel right?" I asked. "I don't know . . . never mind," Luke said. Sometimes I just don't get that boy.

Moments later Maddie came back from behind the counter to our table. The tray in her hands was piled with food; most of which we hadn't ordered, but I was too hungry to point that out. "Enjoy kids," Maddie said cheerfully. We chowed down like never before. The fries, the burgers, the pizza, along with everything else on the tray was gone within minutes. "I don't feel good," Luke said. "Me either," Ana replied half-heartedly. "Is everything alright?" Maddie asked, suddenly appearing at our table. I hadn't even seen her walk up. "Yeah," I said. "You don't look so well Ana," Maddie said, "come with me, I have something that will make you feel better." Ana looked nervous, I could tell she didn't want to go but I didn't want us to look ungrateful. "Go on Ana," I said, "we'll be fine." "I'm sure," Ana replied sarcastically.

Ana

'Thanks Will,' I thought to myself. Why does it always have to be me? I was getting tired, I had eaten too much too fast and it was catching up to me. Maddie walked behind a counter in the back room she brought me too and took a bottle of something out of the cupboard.

"Here's some Aspirin," Maddie said, handing me two pills.

"Thanks."

I took the pills and went to the sink. I noticed a shadow spread across the wall in front of me, into the sink. Something was moving. I turned around and Maddie wasn't . . . Maddie anymore. I quickly closed my eyes. I knew this . . . monster. It was Medusa. "Such beautiful hair you have Ana," Medusa said, "What do your eyes look like?" I didn't reply as I didn't know what to do. I left my weapon in with the boys and all I had on was my body armor. A lot of good chest and back plate was going to do me at a time like this. I did the only thing that came to mind. I screamed.

"Open your eyes child," Maddie-I mean Medusa said, "It won't hurt a bit." I could feel her hands moving on my face and her snaky hair was nipping at me. I reached around behind me hoping to find something to hit her with, unfortunately there was nothing, so I did what any good demigod would do. I punched her, in the stomach to be precise. As soon as she doubled over I ran to the door. It was locked.

"Damn," I said, silently cursing myself for coming in here in the first place.

"Ana," a voice said, "are you okay in there?" I recognized the voice as Luke.

"Medusa!" was all I could get out and I made sure to put an emphasis on _it. _

"I can't open the door," Will said frantically.

"Get out of the way Ana!" Luke yelled. I ran to the side of the room, away from the door. I was behind Medusa who was still on the floor clutching her stomach. "Smash!" was all I heard as Luke came barreling in with Will behind him. I was so mesmerized with what was going on before I knew it Medusa had spun around and grabbed me. I closed my eyes again and I felt a knife at my back. I gasped but remained still.

"You boys move," Medusa said, "and she dies." I peeked a bit, barely opening my eyes and Luke and Will had sunglasses on – Pretty smart.

"If she wouldn't have come with me," Medusa said, "You would all be dead." "I will give you a choice," she continued, "You two leave now, and I will kill the girl. Otherwise you all die." "I'm not leaving without my sister," Will replied defiantly.

I could feel and hear Medusa laugh, "I don't think Apollo wants to lose two children in one day."

"Our father probably wouldn't give a damn. Gods have kids, that's what they do," I heard Will say, "There is always another one to replace us."

"You know that's not true," Medusa said, "You can't trick me, you know the gods care. I am old enough to know that you young fool; every time one of their precious demigods dies a little part of them 'dies' too. They depend on you, hence why I am going to kill you." "Go guys!" I yelled, "I'll be fine." "No-""Yes!" Medusa snarled. "The girl just said she is willing to sacrifice herself, it was her choice!"

Suddenly I felt something cold pass through the right side of my back, between the front and back plates of my armor. My legs felt like noodles and I could feel the blood rush from my head. Medusa obviously had something against me because she held the knife in me for a few seconds before pulling it up my back a few inches.

"No!" I heard my brother Will yell frantically.

I tried to fight back the pain, but I started seeing black spots in front of my eyes. Luke sprang forward with his sword aimed at Medusa and she let go of me, letting me fall to the floor. Her knife came out of my back as I slid down. "Mom . . . Dad," I said in a near whisper. I was thinking about my family back home. I had never had a real chance to explain to them why I was . . . not with them. Sure someone had told them by now, but I wasn't there. I wasn't home. I heard a slice and a loud wail, then a thump on the ground. I squinted my eyes trying to see what had happened and Will was over me.

"Ana," Will said, "Can you hear me?" "Yeah," I mumbled. I could feel myself falling asleep. Suddenly Luke ran over, obviously finished with his . . . work. "No," Luke said. "Will, steady her, I'm going to flip her over." I closed my eyes momentarily. "No Ana," Will said in panic, "You have to stay awake." I didn't feel like staying awake. I wanted to sleep. I could feel my blood dripping out of my back. I wanted to die. "I'm sorry-""No Ana," Luke said, "this was my fault I should have known something was wrong here."

Luke

Her wound was bad. No ambrosia or nectar was going to fix it. I could feel tears welling up inside of my eyes and I couldn't help but let out a sob. "Luke?" Will asked looking at my worriedly. I shook my head. "No," Will said sadly. His face was a mix of emotions. First sadness, then confusion, then anger. "Why do you have to take away all of my sisters?!" he yelled to the sky, shaking his fists. He was shaking and he looked like he was going to kill the next person who came near him. "Ana," I asked, flipping her on to her back, "can you hear me now?" She looked around in a daze and she didn't respond. I held my hand over the wound tightly, trying to stop the blood flow. Will stood up and said, "Take her outside."

"What?"

"I said take her outside." Will picked up our bags and weapons and I picked up our wounded friend. I didn't want to say it out loud as I knew if I did I would break down, but her wound was mortal. We walked out of the restaurant, through the back door. We walked into a beautiful, sunny garden surrounded by a tall stone fence.

"Lay her down," Will instructed. Naturally I did as he said, as he was the son of Apollo and one of Apollo's areas of 'expertise' was healing. I removed her armor and Will knelt down and put his hands to her back and forehead. He closed his eyes and mumbled some Ancient Greek gibberish. He held his hands there for about ten seconds, his eyes still closed and then he opened them. Nothing had happened.

His sister's breathing had slowed down to a near halt and her face was as pale as chalk. Will's face turned tomato red and he jumped up and screamed at the sky, "Dad, I know you aren't supposed to help, but please, just this once?! Do it for me!" Will screamed taking a short pause, "For your daughter!" Nothing happened. "Do you love anybody but yourself?!" he screamed at the sky. Whew, in my opinion that was going a bit too far.

"I need you Dad!" Will screamed, obviously desperate. Still nothing happened.

Will fell to his knees obviously drained when suddenly the area around us got unbelievably bright. Will and I closed our eyes and I shielded Ana's just in case she had them open. Whichever god was appearing before us was like all other gods. If a mortal looks at them in their immortal form, you get turned to dust and . . . I think I'll let your imagination fill in the rest of the details. And they say spontaneous combustion is fake. I could feel the light die down and I opened my eyes. Will's eyes were already open.

Standing in front of us was the god of the sun, light, music, healing, truth, prophecy, and archery. "Lord Apollo," I said respectively. Will just gave him a look that said he was not happy with the god. Nevertheless the god's face wasn't exactly happy, yet it wasn't sad. He was in a 'more mature form' than he normally was. He looked like the traditional fatherly figure from a 1950's utopic society TV show. "Will," Apollo said nodding towards Will, "Luke," he continued nodding towards me. "An-"he said looking towards were Ana was. When his eyes fell on her his face dropped; the semi-smile that was on his face disappeared as though it had never existed.

"How could you let her die?" Will screamed, still sobbing. I didn't know it, but upon wiping my face I found out I was crying too. I was still so shocked I wasn't registering a lot of things that happened around me.

"What-" Apollo began only to be cut off my Will, "You know _what_ Dad. You're a god. You can see all. And besides you knew this was going to happen, after all you are the god of prophecy." Will looked like he wanted to strangle his golden haired father. Apollo knelt down next to his daughter, seemingly 'surveying the damage'.

"Will," Apollo began, "Yes, I am a god, but I had no idea this was happening. I couldn't see you, nor could I assist you as my father Zeus wouldn't allow it." I stood up, letting go of his daughter and setting her on the ground. She wasn't breathing anymore. Medusa was right, if Ana wouldn't have gone back with her alone we would all have been dead.

Will looked at his father quizzically, "Then why are you here now?" Apollo's face dropped even farther, if that was possible,

"My father had other things to attend to. Besides," he continued, "You said you needed me so I came."

Will suddenly looked guilty and turned away from us. Apollo reached his arms out, putting one arm around Ana, under her back and stroking her forehead with his other hand. He brushed her unruly golden curls out of her face before pulling his hand out from under her. It was covered in blood. I couldn't take it anymore, I started crying and walked away, sitting down on a bench beside the stone fence. Apollo looked defeated for a moment, but just as quickly as the look of defeat had come, it was gone. He put one hand to his daughter's forehead and the other under her back, on the wound.

He picked her up and leaned her against his knee. I hadn't noticed it until that moment but father and daughter looked a lot alike. Ana put a lot of heart into the things she did and I could see that same quality in Apollo. The god closed his eyes and mumbled something. He opened his eyes . . . and again nothing happened. Then she started to glow.

Slowly color returned to her face, she started breathing again, and she opened her eyes with a start. Her Dad held her tighter as she started shaking. "What happened?" she asked. Will ran over to her and gave cautiously put his arms out towards her like he couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to touch her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She made a fake smile, "Never better." She looked around quizzically for a few moments before her face turned to the figure that was still holding her.

"Dad?" she asked.

Apollo's glow suddenly got brighter, "Yes, I'm your father."

Ana threw her arms up and hugged him like she had been waiting to do so her whole life. Ana started to stand up, still hugging her father, and Apollo stood up with her.

"I'm sorry-""No Ana," Apollo cut in, "I'm sorry. I should have claimed you earlier, it's just that-""You didn't want to mess up my destiny?" Ana asked breaking the hug. Apollo nodded with a sad smile on his face.

"Thanks Dad," Ana said before hugging him again.

"You're welcome child," Apollo replied.

They stood there hugging each other for about ten seconds before Will interrupted, "Uh . . . hello?"

"Oh you get over here too," Apollo said while reaching out for Will. Will backed up to escape his grasp but you can't outrun a god. They hugged and Apollo kissed them both on the forehead while suddenly morphing to a slightly younger, less worried form he normally inhabited.


	20. Chapter 20 - The Gift

Will

I broke our hug as I figured it went on long enough. Apollo gave me my sister back, and he hugged me, but that didn't mean I forgave him for the years of being ignored.

"What now?" Ana asked, with Apollo still standing next to us. I shrugged and Luke looked at the trees surrounding us as though he would find the answer there. Apollo suddenly took a more serious look, "Alright. I helped you once, which although is against the ancient laws, I may be able to get away with it again."

He made a frown and we all got tense. We stood like statues for a couple moments before Apollo started laughing hysterically.

He doubled over clutching his stomach, "Gods, you demigods are always so serious. Relax!"

None of us loosened up.

"Anyways," Apollo began, "You must go to "Arena Matagami". It's an old hockey rink. It's closed at this time of the year, but the ice is still there, and it is there that you will find Hades and his godling." Apollo had never been so . . . fatherly in the time I had known him. He even . . . hugged us. It's not that I didn't love my Father, it's that it hurt that he wasn't always there.

As though he was reading my mind Apollo turned to me and grabbed my arm, "Follow me," he said. He turned and waved to Ana and Luke and they waved back. Ana didn't look comfortable with anything that had just happened, and Luke looked about the same. I followed my Dad and he led me behind a tall, thick bush.

"Will," he began, "I know how you feel." I just stood there looking at him and I said nothing. For a moment he flickered between his youthful self and his more mature, fatherly figure. He looked at me sternly and then his face softened, he looked down and sighed.

"Son," he said, "Before I became a god, I was a demigod . . . of sorts. It wasn't easy and my father wasn't always there for me. Hera wanted my mother dead – along with my sister and me, but I have since . . . forgiven her for that."

"You fought more monsters than Python?" I asked. "Yes," my Father replied with a sunny smile. "Gods and monsters wanted you dead?" I asked again. My Father showed signs of age suddenly, "Look, I want you to take this," he continued, handing me a small watch.

"Rolex," I repeated, reading the watch. "Twist the face of the clock," my Father continued. I did as he said and suddenly the watch turned into a large golden shield with a large, bright sun on the front.

"Wow," I muttered, "thanks Dad." My Dad smiled, "You're Welcome." Apollo looked at the watch on his arm, "Wow, will you look at the time! Dad will have my godly hide if I don't set that sun soon."

"See you later," I replied, "and thanks for the help."

"Sure thing kid," Apollo replied with a smile. Apollo whistled and his sun chariot, currently in the form of a red sports car flew in from nowhere. He waved and I waved back, then he went up above the bush and waved to Ana and Luke. Ana seemed scared to death, but she waved back just the same. We watched Apollo charge away and we stood silently for a while. "

Well," Luke broke in, "are we going to play hockey or whay?"

"Sorry Luke, we have to find a god first, then his daughter, and save the world," I replied.

Luke made a fake sad face, "Aw, I was hoping we could have some fun."

Ana punched him in the arm.

"Hey," Luke howled, "what did you do that for?"

"You really are a son of Hermes," Ana replied. They started walking out of the garden and the last thing I heard either of them say was Luke protesting sarcastically, "What's that supposed to mean?" We weren't anywhere near finished with this mission yet and I could tell it was going to be a . . . _ride_.

"Ana, go hunt for supplies, I need to talk to Luke," I said calmly. Ana nodded like she expected what was coming. She turned around and walked inside of the store.

"Luke," I began, "I want you to stay away from her."

Luke's face turned bright red and he looked at his feet, "Look Will I'm sorr-""Sorry isn't good enough," I cut in. "I lost siblings because of you, I lost many good friends because of you, and I almost died because of you. Many mortals almost died because of you too," I continued. I felt like crying, I lost my brother Michael . . . "Look Luke," I resumed, "I didn't want to say anything in front of Ana, which is why I didn't bring this up before, but if it was up to me I wouldn't be on a quest with you. End of story."

I didn't feel bad for what I said, I hated Luke, at least at the time I did.

"I understand," Luke said, "I know I can't make you like me, but I won't see your sister as much. I can't promise I'll stop talking to her and I can't promise I'll stop . . . liking her, but . . ." I nodded and he nodded in reply.


	21. Chapter 21 - The Olympians

Percy

After we defeated the forces in Greece we all came back to Camp Half-Blood to stop Gaia. Nico and Reyna successfully returned the statue of Athena to Camp Half-Blood, eventually placing it near Thalia's Tree with the Golden Fleece and our guard dragon. Upon our arrival at Camp, in Leo's marvelous masterpiece, the Argo II, we found Nico in the infirmary in a coma. He woke up the next day, leaving a note, and we hadn't seen him since. The statue of Athena made peace between the Roman and the Greek demigods, but quite a few Roman demigods turned to help Gaia, Octavian included. I never did trust him, neither did Reyna, I guess that is why I was made the temporary praetor instead of him.

Gaia was supposed to show up at some point in August and In order to defeat her we needed the gods help, but naturally they were still closed up in Olympus. I was somewhat ashamed that my Father couldn't see sense, or at least knock some sense into Zeus. Annabeth and I were glad Chiron let us stay at home, but we did feel a bit guilty about it.

I was sitting on the beach over-looking the water when Annabeth came up behind me.

"Do you think they'll succeed on their quest?" she asked.

I thought for a while before answering, "I don't know. I hope so. If they don't we're . . . done for."

"Hades did . . . sneak around more so than the other gods," Annabeth replied, "He did pop up and help us once in a while."

I nodded. Hades had helped us, in the Mediterranean, he helped his kids – which in turn helped us – and he probably . . . pulled some strings in Tartarus for us. "If they don't rescue Hades – and Hazel," I continued, "we might as well give up."

I hated admitting it but we needed any Olympian we could get, and although Hades wasn't my . . . favorite god – nor I his favorite nephew – we did respect each other. Why hadn't my Father helped me? He may have been trying to convince Zeus to open the gates of Olympus, but if Hades managed to help us, and Hecate, why couldn't he help us? I hadn't seen him since my birthday. No word, nothing.

"Don't worry," Annabeth said, "if your Father could come visit you he would."

"Other gods have found ways to contact their kids," I replied, "why can't he visit me?" "Per-""We came back from Tartarus Annabeth, something that had only been accomplished by three beings. We shouldn't have survived," I replied, "And not a word from our parents. I love my Dad, but . . . gods, why? All of this is making it hard to love any god."

Annabeth looked out to the sea and nodded, "We're demigods," she replied, "we'll get through this like always." I stood up, "We'd better go see if there is anything we can do to help prepare for Gaia," I said. Annabeth looked like she had just remembered something, "Is your armor-""Repaired?" I asked interrupting her, "Yes Wise Girl." She threw her arm around my shoulder, her blonde curls bouncing, "Good. Is your sword-""Yes Annabeth it's sharpened!" I replied laughing. She started laughing and we then ran to Chiron.

He was teaching archery class and he looked happy, considering the circumstances. I liked seeing Chiron happy, he was sort of like a 2nd, well 3rd Dad to me – counting my Stepdad – and he meant a lot to me.

"Anything we can do to help?" I asked, bouncing over to Chiron.

"Well Percy you are definitely looking better. Yes there is something you can do, I want you to grab a bow and some arrows – you too Annabeth," he continued. "It's time you two worked on your archery as you will need it when . . . You know."

He suddenly looked a bit glum, like thousands of years of worry had just settled on him.

"Chiron," Annabeth said, "they'll complete their quest you know. Ana, Will, and Luke that is. Will and Luke know what they are doing and Ana looked good with a sword."

Chiron looked wistfully at us, "I'm sure they will complete their quest, but at what cost. I'm sure they will set Hades free – and find Hazel, but . . . I don't want to lose any more campers," he replied trying to pull off a smile. At that moment I realized I had been taking Chiron for granted too much. I would hate to be in his shoes – I mean hooves.

Having to train demigods, getting attached to them, sending them off into the world, worrying about them, and in most cases watching them die. "Don't worry," I said rather calmly,

"They'll get back in plenty of time to help fight of Gaia and her minions."

Chiron nodded, "Now go get those bows!" He shoved Annabeth and I off playfully towards the bow rack and went back to teaching the other campers.


	22. Chapter 22 - PlutoHades Meets Hazel

Hazel

The room I was held in was cold and lifeless – perfect for a child of the god of the Underworld. I was 'demigodnapped' in a way I had thought only my father, Pluto – or Hades – himself could arrange. I was walking to my cabin and the ground underneath me opened up and well . . . down I went. It seemed like I was falling forever and I almost fell asleep midair.

Suddenly a green light opened up underneath me and I landed hard on my legs, then my back with a painful thud. I stayed in that position and I watched the chute in the ceiling close up behind me.

"Great," I muttered.

I heard movement behind me and I reached for my sword, but of course – it wasn't there. It was night time at Camp Half-Blood, I was about to go to bed so naturally I wouldn't bring the dang sword with me. I let out a frustrated sound and tried getting up but as soon as I made the effort to stand it felt like someone was stabbing my legs with thousands of knives. I almost blacked out from the pain when I heard a familiar voice.

"Hazel?" the voice asked. I turned quickly, still sitting. I was ready to attack whatever or whoever was behind me.

"Great," I replied, "why does it seem like everyone knows my name?" The person that was talking was hidden in the corner of the room, in the shadows. Slowly it – he stepped out from the shadows. The odd green light in the air helped me make out his face.

"Dad," I whispered almost inaudibly. He walked over to me and knelt down. People say Pluto – or Hades – is a cold god, but I didn't see him that way. He reached his pale hand out and touched my leg. "OW!" I screamed rather loudly. Since we were in an empty room with no windows or doors my scream echoed around for a while.

"Sorry," Pluto replied, wincing somewhat as though he was in pain himself. Stunned I asked, "Did you just say . . . sorry?" He ignored my question and started prodding my legs more, obviously trying to find the breaks. Naturally none of this felt good and I started crying a bit, inaudibly, but there were tears rolling down my cheeks.

"This will hurt," he said. He put his hands on my legs – one on each leg – and he said some sort of chant like Apollo would say. I thought I was in pain before, but let me tell you it got worse when he started healing me. After about twenty seconds he took his hands off of my legs and said, "That ought to do it."

"Where are we?" I asked. "I don't know child," he replied, "Some place set up by Gaia I suppose." Stunned I asked, "Wait, so she can swallow anyone whenever she wants? She could take down the whole camp!"

I started getting worked up but my Father put my worries to rest, "No child. This trick she pulled off with us took much of her strength; she won't be able to do something like that for a long time as she has to conserve her strength for the battle which will soon start at the Greek demigod camp."

"Camp Half-Blood," I said. My father nodded. His dark eyes were surrounded by lines that one would almost swear were laugh lines – unless you knew the Lord of the Dead. His short black hair hung down limply, and his face skin looked gruesomely green in the green light of the cavern we were in. I stood up, genuinely surprised that my legs didn't hurt anymore and started walking around.

"Don't bother," my Dad said, sitting himself down against the wall.

"Don't bother what?" I asked.

"Trying to form a tunnel – you can't. The magic surrounding this place has cut off my powers, and since you are my child it has cut yours off as well." I was getting frustrated and mad. "So what do we do?" I asked.

"Sit here I guess," he replied rather calmly. "Well this gives us some time then," Pluto said, looking up at me.

"To what?" I asked. "Talk," he said, gesturing towards the empty spot next to him. I stayed standing and looked at him. "I don't bite you know," he replied with barely an ounce of humor in his voice.

"I know, but . . ." I replied, stopping because I didn't know how to phrase what I wanted to say.

"Go on," he replied.

"I'm not supposed to be near you," I started, "The Ancient laws say you aren't supposed to help me or change my-""May the laws be damned," he interrupted calmly. "We need to talk."

I nodded and sat down next to my Father. For being such a pale, cold, god he was actually quite warm, and it wasn't until then that I noticed how cold I was in that cavern. He sat silent for a while. For a moment I thought he fell asleep, but then I thought of how silly it sounded – a god falling asleep that is.


	23. Chapter 23 - Almost There

Luke

Turned out that we were about twenty miles south-east of the arena. Since all we could see was snow, pine trees, and more snow, we decided that a bus wouldn't be an option. The town we had stopped in when Apollo showed up was basically dead, and we had no time to wait around. After the encounter with Medusa we had our armor on extra tight and we walked with our weapons within arm reach.

We must have looked like three crazy kids missing from a Greek convention. Only one car had passed us on the highway, they slowed down as they approached us and they almost came to a complete stop. I turned to my right and looked at the driver and he sped away faster than a speeding bullet. Who knows what the mortal saw through the mist – if it was a mortal.

"Luke," Ana said, breaking the awkward silence we kept will walking, "What happened exactly if you don't mind me asking?"

I looked at her and frowned a bit. I knew what she was asking about – Kronos – and she deserved to know. For the next hour or so we walked to the beat of my story. I repeated everything that I remembered about what happened.

"I should have told you earlier," I concluded, "it wasn't fair of me to keep it a secret."

"I understand why you did," Ana began, "and don't worry, I don't judge you for it."

Will threw his arm around my shoulder, "Me either," he said. I smiled at them, "Thanks guys." Whether or not what they said - about not judging me - was true it made me feel a lot better about working with them.

At the fifteen mile mark we sat down for a break. We only had about five miles left and although I wasn't tired, Ana looked like she needed a nap. We walked off of the highway and settled into a big pile of warm leaves in the forest next to the road. The snow hadn't gotten into the forest yet so it was surprisingly warm.

Ana immediately pulled a blanket out of her backpack and settled down in the leaves. After a few seconds she started snoring.

"The curse of the Apollo cabin," Will said, "Snoring that is." He sat down next to her and I sat down across from them. We sat in silence for around five minutes and I could have sworn Will was sizing me up.

"Luke," Will began, "I've forgiven you for what happened, and I wanted to tell you that I trust you and…" He trailed off and started shaking his head. "Never mind," he concluded.

"No, Will," I began, somewhat embarrassed, "Don't worry, you can trust me, and the fact you said that means a lot to me. Thank you. We should get some sleep now."

"I'll take first watch," Will offered. It was getting dark and coldness that had been on the highway was starting to get to me. I was too tired to argue over whom take the first watch and I would fall asleep moments later. Tomorrow would be the day we would have to release Hades. I didn't know much about Hazel but obviously she was an important demigod.


	24. Chapter 24 - Operation Khione

Annabeth

The campers, myself included, started getting jittery. Will, Luke, and Ana had two days to get back in order to make the August 1st deadline. Chiron looked a bit worried about it, but he tried not letting on. We had spent the time they were gone preparing for the battle which would take place in two days.

Unfortunately the morale of the camp was at an all-time low. Ares kids were screaming at the Mars kids, the Aphrodite and Venus kids wouldn't stop arguing about who was prettier, and the Roman demigods kept harassing the Athena children, myself included, about the fact our Mother was supposed to be a virgin goddess. They didn't seem to be able to comprehend the fact that she still was and always would be - a virgin goddess. Chiron called us in for a camp meeting in the dining pavilion and we all knew it was for an important reason.

"You have to work together," Chiron began.

Reyna was standing next to him in her long purple robe and her battle armor. Her long black hair was tied back in a messy braid and it looked like she hadn't slept in days. "You have to put aside you differences," Reyna continued, "If you don't, we will all die. The world as you know it will cease to exist, the Olympians will fall, and we will most likely all be thrown into Tartarus if we don't win this upcoming battle."

"Well that was putting it bluntly," a Mars kid pointed out.

Chiron nodded grimly, "To put it in kinder terms, we have to work together – Greeks and Romans united."

"Awe come on, no Civil War?" An Ares kid asked. Whether he was joking or not I could not tell. "No," Chiron laughed out, "There will be no bloodshed between us." Reyna nodded. Clarisse looked rather depressed at that statement. "You may all eat now, and we will have our campfire as usual after our dinner," Chiron concluded. All of the kids ran to get magic plates and cups for their dinner. All of the tables were packed full with Greek and Roman half-bloods except for the Zeus table, which held only Jason and Thalia – the Hunters if Artemis had come to Camp to help the day before – the Poseidon table which held only Percy, and the Hades and Hera tables which were empty.

I went and grabbed my plate and sat over by Percy at his table. Normally changing tables wasn't allowed but no one bothered Percy and me about it.

"How's it-" I stopped talking.

A cold breeze flew through the hall and the other tables stopped talking almost instantaneously. Chiron and Mr. D looked up from their table like they were ready to attack anything that moved. Suddenly a burst of snow blew in and standing in front of us was a girl dressed in white with long dark hair.

"It's Khione," Jason said from the table next to us. Piper started walking forward from the Aphrodite table and Leo came over from the Hephaestus table. Jason stood up, so Percy and I walked over to him. "My name is Khione, goddess of snow," she said, "Jason, Piper, and Leo already know me."

The five of us lined up next to each other with our weapons in our hands. "What do you want Khione?" Percy asked. She smiled hideously, "I want you to be able to watch your three friends die." A sinking feeling landed in the pit of my stomach.

"Don't you-""What? Dare hurt them?" Khione continued, "You forget Perseus, I am a goddess."

Ooh, I was seriously starting to hate this goddess. "I hope you're all ready for a show," she said, looking towards Chiron and Mr. D. She put her arm up in the air and made snow swirl into a form the shape of a double-sided screen. It was around ten feet long and seven feet tall. An image of our three half-bloods showed up on the screen. "Good gods," Chiron murmured.


	25. Chapter 25 - The Battle

Ana

Will and Luke were sleeping in the leaf pile and I was on lookout patrol. We had a small fire set up to the right of our leaf pile and I stayed awake by singing songs to myself. I know, Apollo kids are weird. Deal with it. I was a bit nervous as I was afraid of the dark. Suddenly the fire blew out and snow started to blow into the camp.

"Luke, Will?" I whispered. I was getting scared and that was all I could get out. I heard something coming up behind me, and from down the highway I saw two big blobs of . . . nothingness. I could see through them, yet I could tell they were there. I reached for my sword just in time. They were big dragons made of snow.

"Will! Luke!" I screamed. They jumped up, still half-asleep but with their swords already in hand. "Dive to the side!" Will screamed. Luke pushed me to the right and Will jumped to the left. The dragons flew between us and thankfully overshot us. "Stand ready!" Luke shouted over the sound of the screeching dragons. Will jumped forward and he sliced his sword through the first dragon's neck.

Percy

We watched Khione's big screen in horror. Will, Luke, and Ana were being attacked by giant snow dragons. Will sliced his sword through the smaller dragon's neck and it disappeared with a hiss and a puff of snow.

"Yeah!" the Ares and Mares kids screamed. Khione gave us a smug smirk and snapped her fingers. Suddenly another snow dragon appeared on the screen. It lunged at Ana slicing her bicep with its claws. She staggered backwards clutching her arm that was bleeding pretty badly.

Chiron drew his side daggers, "Khione leave here and leave the children alone. You are a goddess not an animal."

Khione laughed, "Chiron, always the noble one weren't you. I fight for Gaia because she is right in what she does. Olympus will fall and I will no longer be a minor goddess."

"You're wrong," Aegeas yelled from the Apollo table, "Gaia will destroy you as well as the rest of us." Khione flicked her hand in the direction of the Apollo table and Aegeas flew into the wall.

"Enough!" Dionysus screamed from the head table. Khione spun around and when she saw him her look of confidence faded. In the meantime everything on the screen was becoming a snowy blur. It was fading and zoning out. The last thing we saw before the screen dissapeared completely was a look of terror on Will's face as the dragons came in for another shot at the demigods.

"You will feel the wrath of Gaia yet," she hissed. Khione and her screen disappeared in a flash of blinding snow. Everyone stood in an awkward silence with a few campers at each table making a claw over their heart and pushing outward with it.

"Alright campers, finish your dinner, and go to bed if you like. I won't make ithe campfire mandatory tonight," Mr. D said.

One of the campers blurted out, "But what about Luke and-""We can't help them," Chiron said, "As much as it hurts me to say this we can't do anything to aid them. We're to far away." The kids murmured amongst each other than the room went silent.

Dionysus stood up hesitantly, "I must go back to Olympus," he said, "the other Olympians will need an update on everything that has happened." One of Mr. D's sons, the twin that survived the 2nd Titan War, stood up from his table and looked like he wanted to ask his Dad a question.

"Yes son," Mr. D began, "I am going to attempt to convince the Olympians to come help." He nodded to Chiron and walked out of the dining pavillion. I had never seen Mr. D look so worried before, but I guess when you're godly hide is hanging in the balance, he had a right to be worried. All I hoped at the time was that my father was trying to do the same.


	26. Chapter 26 - The Battle Begins

Luke

Ana recovered quickly after her up-close and personal time with the tree and was up and fighting in less than a minute. "We can't defeat them," I screamed hopelessly. We were getting nowhere. We were simply wasting energy we would need later in the day. "Stop moving," Will shouted. We stopped moving but the dragons still swirled around us, clawing at us with their icy talons.

"Ana, do it," Will said.

"Do what?" she asked while holding her torn up arm.

"You know your special power, from Dad. Use it," he replied.

"I don't have any special power!" she yelled.

"Yes you do! Just concentrate," Will replied.

Suddenly Ana let go of her arm and she her eyes started glowing bright gold. The air around us heated up and the snow started to melt. The dragons let out a defeated scream and then they were gone. Warm breezes continued to flow around us, melting the snow and starting up our fire again.

"You did it Ana!" Will shouted, giving her a big bear hug. Her eyes stopped glowing gold and returned to their normal shade of blue.

"I do have a power," she said, still somewhat confused.

"We'd better get out of here," I said, breaking up their family time. It was early morning and we had to save Hades today, because Gaia was supposed to attack Camp Half-Blood late the next day. It was getting to be late in the morning and we still had to find the Arena.

We stopped at the first gas station we saw to get some more food and ask for directions. Ana went to ask directions and Will and I went to gather the food. Will healed Ana's arm and all that was left was a long white scar trailing from her shoulder to her elbow on her right arm.

Will had apologized to her about not being able to get rid of the scar as well but she said she rather liked it as it was her first real battle wound. Frankly I considered her fight with Medusa to be the ultimate battle wound, but she showed no scars from that so I guess it didn't count in her mind.

I walked up to Ana who looked a bit flustered at the cashier counter.

"You want to go where?!" the middle-aged man half-shouted.

"Arena Matagami, you know the old hockey rink?" she replied looking angry.

"That place has been closed for years, it's dangerous!" the man replied.

"Please sir, would you just tell us the directions?" she asked again. All I thought about was how we could have really used that Aphrodite girl, Piper.

"Umph, fine. But don't say I didn't tell you so!" he replied, while waving a finger at her. Ana sighed and turned toward me giving me an annoyed look. He wrote out the directions and we were on our way.

"Let's see," Will said – reading the map, "Turn left at the old movie theater then right at the apartment complex." We walked through the town which looked deserted. "There it is," Will said calmly. We walked to the door of the only hockey rink and stopped before entering. "Equipment check," I said. We all checked for our swords, daggers, bows, arrows, and we made sure our armor was properly placed.

"Let's go," Ana said, confidently striding up to the boards covering the entrance. She grabbed a board and pulled it out with her bare hands, throwing it to the side. "Now we can fit through," she said happily. We all slunk in and started cautiously searching the place. There were old advertisements littering the floor along with stale disgusting popcorn.

"Yuck," Ana said as she stepped into some old cookie batter spread on the floor. "This place is really a mess. We are supposed to find a god here?" she asked rather cynically.

"Apparently," Will said, "If not then we have wasted what little time we have." I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach but I didn't say anything.

"We have to go on the ice," Will said. He opened the door to the rink and started cautiously walking across.

"Do you-""See that?" Ana said finishing Will's question, "Yes, I do." They were pointing to the middle of the rink and Will was muttering something under his breath. "What is it?" I asked. "This ice shouldn't be here, it's magical. There are two people, or . . . gods below us," Ana finished.


	27. Chapter 27 - Rescuing Hades

Hazel

I was cold, still in pain, and stuck in a small rock cavern with my Dad, Pluto. "I know I was never around," Pluto began, "but you have made me so proud." I avoided looking at him even though we were sitting next to each other. I looked up at the ceiling of the cavern instead. It seemed to be made of shiny, wet, light colored rock, but it was hard to tell through the green haze that surrounded us. I just didn't want to look at my Father.

"Please Hazel," Pluto said, "If we don't talk now we may never have another chance." He looked somewhat sad.

"Dad," I began rather hesitantly, "You will live forever. If we stay in here much longer I will die, but you won't. You have all the time in the world!" After saying that I wanted to take it back, I had only then just registered what had come out of my mouth.

"Hazel I'm sorry," Pluto said. I looked at him and started crying. I had died, lost my Mom, and I never had a Dad. Now he was saying he was sorry?

"You're sorry?" I asked, standing up. I staggered backwards, turning to look at him.

"Here, I lost everything, and none of it was my fault and all you can say is you're sorry?" I walked over to the other side of the chamber we were in and sat down. I curled up in a ball and sobbed into my shirt.

"Hazel, wherever it is we are right now, I have no power. I'm not immortal until I get my power back. If you die here, I will most likely die here. Please let me-""There is nothing you can say to me that will make things better," I said between sobs.

Ana

"I've got a bad feeling about this," I said. Will nodded, "Me too." "So how do we get . . . whoever is down there . . . out?" Will asked. "We are light and heat," I replied, "We melt them out. We go, walk onto the ice, and melt it."

"Then won't we fall through?" Will asked. Suddenly we realized why two Apollo kids had come. One of us had to . . . fall into whatever abyss was below the ice and perhaps die. "I'll do it," I said. "No," Will replied rather firmly, "I am going to do it."

Luke put a hand on both of our shoulders and said rather sadly, "One of you will have to do it. I don't know what to say." We looked down at our feet. "We'll both do it," Will and I said at the same time.

"Can I have a moment with . . .?" Luke asked. Will nodded, "Sure", and walked away. "Ana," Luke began, "When Medusa killed you I didn't know what to do. Your brother was acting like a madman, and although I didn't do that . . . I do . . . care about you." "Lu-""Please let me finish. As you know I watched over you for a while to see if you were ready for the life of a demigod. I had some doubts at first but now I know you are ready."

"Luke," I began. I didn't know what to say. It's not like I didn't have . . . feeling for him, it's just that I had never had feelings for any boy before, and no other boy had feelings for me either. No one wanted to date a child classified as 'weirdo', especially a ginger one.

"I have feelings for you too, I don't know how to . . . say i-" He grabbed me shoulders and . . . let's just say we got a little close in the face area. When he let go of me I could feel myself blushing. We had always had a bit of a big brother – little sister relationship and . . . well I don't know how to explain it.

"Be careful," he said calmly. I nodded, still embarrassed and turned to my brother who was now standing five feet away from us with a protective look on his face. "Let's go," he said. We walked onto the ice, considering the fact there was no air conditioning in the room and it was hot as blazes in there we knew that the ice didn't belong and was obviously enchanted. The fact it was hot in the arena confused the heck out of me considering the fact it was snowing outside but I chose not to say anything. When we were about half-way to the middle where the two figures were beneath the ice we slowed our pace.

"Careful now," Will said.

"Will-""About the kiss back there, it's okay you know," Will said, "Luke has liked you since you got here and I'm sure from before that too.

"But-""Be careful with him, he's been through a lot. More than any demigod should have to go through," Will said, interrupting me yet again.""Will-""Now when we get to the middle I want you to let me go first, do you understand?" he asked. "You sure do like interrupting me a lot," I replied. My brother smirked and looked quite happy considering the situation we were in.

His smile was like mine, and my smile was like my Dad's smile. All of the Apollo kids seemed to have the same sort of bounce and shine to their smile – like they were always excited. We arrived at the middle of the rink and I turned to see Luke standing back at the opening to the rink. He was gripping the side of the rink like it was a sword. His knuckles were probably white and cold, judging by the grim expression on his face. "Let's do this," Will said to which I nodded. We faced each other in the middle of the rink and held hands.

Will

"Ana, I don't want you hanging around Luke," I said calmly. She looked at me with a frown, "Will . . . I know you don't trust him, but I do. He got me to camp, I owe him for that much." Suddenly I wondered, "Hey Ana?" I asked. "Yes?" "Why didn't a satyr bring you to camp? We've never had demigods go hunt for other demigods before." She looked at me with a puzzled look on her face, "Oh," she said, "Luke told me no one knew I lived in Alaska, except my Father and Hades, so Hades sent Luke to get me." "And I'm glad he did," she continued with a smile. Ana's hands were as cold as ice, and her face was tinged green. "Are you okay?" I asked. "I'm fine, I just don't feel good," she replied. "Don't worry," I replied, "Your powers are new to you, they drained you. You have to stay awake do you understand?" I asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," she replied, but she didn't sound very convincing. We should have waited longer to do this as she had used her powers barely an hour before. "Let's do this," she said calmly. I nodded and we started saying some strange Ancient Greek chant. Our hands started to glow. The glow slowly spread to the rest of our bodies, then spreading onto the ice. I could feel the ice below me start to puddle at my feet.

"Will?" Ana asked. "Yes?" "Were all of the kids in our Cabin Greek demigods or were some from that Roman demigod camp?" she asked. "Camp Jupiter?" I asked trying to clarify. She nodded. "Yes," I replied, "they are." The Greek form of Apollo only has six children, the rest are from Apollo's Roman form, not that there's much of a difference between us." "That makes lots of sense," she replied while rolling her eyes. I chuckled to myself.

"Let's do the chant again," I said. We needed the ice to melt faster as I had a feeling that said something bad was going to happen. We held hands and repeated the chant three more times and the ice started to melt faster. Suddenly from above us I heard a loud screech. We looked up and above us was some sort of monster made of fire. It approached the ice from behind us and oddly enough the ice didn't melt, but I could feel the air around us get much hotter. I felt the sweat start building up on my forehead and back. Now we had a problem.

"We have to ignore them," Will said, "If we let go of each other the ice will start to freeze again." I felt the monster fire burn holes in my shirt but I didn't let go. The monster circled us, blowing fire, for a while, but it never physically touched us.

"I think it's some sort of fire bird!" Ana yelled to me. The monster screeched in our ears as it blew fire and I thought we were going to melt. Ana didn't look good, she was sweating bullets and she looked like she was going to tip over. Little did I know how bad I looked and that I was going to tip over first.


	28. Chapter 28 - End of Part 1

Ana

He just slumped to the ground; my hands were so wet I couldn't hold on anymore. His fingers slipped from mine and fell to the ice. The ice, which had almost melted through to the chamber underneath started to freeze up again.

"No," I mumbled in desperation. I exhaled all of my frustrations and I threw my hands out and tried concentrating with everything I had. We couldn't fail now; we had come too far for failure. I couldn't disappoint the others back at camp, I couldn't disappoint my family, and I couldn't disappoint my Dad. The ice started melting again, there was barely an inch left. The monster above me kept sending bursts of fire in my direction and I felt myself falling. My feet were soaked in the water from the ice and my mind was starting to leave me.

My brother wasn't moving and I thought he was dead. I looked down at myself and I had a bright, painfully bright golden glow to my skin and the air around me turned gold as well. The ice was almost melted through. I saw Luke in front of me by the rink railing. There was nothing he could do to help, he couldn't stand the heat like Apollo kids could. I watched as he tried to step onto the ice, but he kept falling back as the heat was too much for him.

"I'm sorry," he cried out to me. Suddenly I felt my feet give way as the ice underneath me melted into oblivion. I felt myself falling and I tried to grab the air around me. I prepared myself for death, which was apparently going to come when I landed. The short drop didn't give me much time to think. Suddenly I felt myself land on something big and fluffy. Confused as heck and extremely tired and dizzy I looked at who had broken my fall.

"Hades . . ." I murmured, almost having a heart attack.

"Pluto actually," he replied, lifting himself off of the ground.

"Pluto?" I asked.

"My Roman form," he replied. He turned into some odd black smoke and flew out of the chamber up to the remainder of the ice that was surrounding us above.

The girl next to me, obviously Hazel, waved to me, "Hi," she said happily. "Um . . . hi."

Suddenly two puffs of Hades' black smoke lifted Hazel and I out of the tunnel and into the surrounding area above. I landed next to Hazel by where Luke was standing. "Ana!" Luke screamed, running up to me and hugging me.

"Too tight!" I wheezed out.

"I thought you were dead Sunshine!" he responded, letting me go. I sunk back to the floor,

"Sunshine?" I asked suddenly feeling exhausted. "Oh," he replied, "That's my new nickname for you." "Great," I murmured, still feeling sick from my experience on the ice. I stood up, holding onto the rink railing, and looked out on the remainder of the ice. Hades was fighting the monster, and not doing so well at that. "He didn't have his powers in the room we were in," Hazel said, "He just got them back when you got us out. He won't be able to defeat . . . whatever the monster is."

"Look Luke I need to talk to you about 'us'-," Suddenly I saw Will. He was laying right underneath the battle; still not moving.

"Will!" I screamed.

Suddenly the boy popped out, the boy who helped me at camp. "Nico," I murmured. "You know him?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, we met a couple times at camp. He showed me around and told me we were going to Canada," I replied.

Nico, who was floating on his Father's black smoke, pulled Will out of the way and over by us.

"I've got to help Dad," Nico said as he deposited Will on the other side of the barrier, blocking us from the carnage happening on the rink. He ran to Pluto . . . or Hades and pulled out his sword. Father and Son, although different aspects, Greek vs. Roman took down the monster, Drakon maybe? Anyways they took it down like it was made of cordwood.

Nico jumped off of the side and pulled his sword through the monster's side, and Hades . . . sucked the dying monster into his . . . toga.

"Well that was . . . nice," I said.

Pluto hovered over to us with Nico in tow. "Don't worry about your brother," Pluto said, "He'll be fine. We have to get back to Camp Half-Blood," he continued, "Grab hands."

We all held hands in a circle and . . . morphed - or shadow travelled as Nico called it - back to camp. We were standing at the top of Half-Blood Hill when we landed.

"I need to go to Olympus," Pluto said, still in his Roman form, "I need to get the other Olympians down here."

"ASAP would be nice," Will said, standing up. He looked a lot better considering the fact he had just woken up. "Thank you young godlings," Pluto said, "I must go." With that he sighed and left us. "Well that went well," Luke said.

"Nico," I cut in, "How did you find us?" He shuffled around awkwardly and seemed to have to think about what he wanted to say.

"I'm the 4th demigod the prophecy to find Hades mentioned," he replied. We all nodded, suddenly beginning to understand that what had taken place was necessary in order to stop Gaia. Hopefully releasing Hades would prove fruitful. "Let's report to Chiron. Gaia is due tonight," Will said groggily. I grabbed his arm and we ran to the Big House. The camp was chaos and Chiron was fruitlessly trying to calm everyone down. Annabeth spotted us first.

"Luke, Will, and Ana are back!" she screamed. All of the demigods looked in our direction, around one-hundred or so. The satyrs stopped making the plants grow and looked up as well. Bits of aluminum were stuck in their mouths. Chiron looked at us rather surprised, as thought he wasn't expecting us to return and he galloped over to us.

"Did you succeed?" he asked. "Yes," Luke replied, "We released Lord Hades who is now trying to make the other gods see sense, and as you can see Hazel is standing right next to us."

"Good," Chiron said smiling, "Now let's get to work." He looked around at his band of demigods and he actually looked hopeful, although I don't see how he could have been.

* * *

**A big hello to all of my readers and a quick note: What you have so far is the first half of "The Return of the Time Lord", set after "House of Hades". I knew too many people who were impatient for "Blood of Olympus", but I didn't want to name my fan fiction "Blood of Olympus", as I didn't want people confused or thinking this was the real book by "Uncle Rick". The first chapter of part two of "The Return of the Time Lord" will come out on Sunday – November 3****rd, 2013****. Until then please consider reading through this story again as I had to change several things along the way. And yes, before anyone asks you will see Percy/Poseidon moments and Thalia and the Hunters will be joining in as well. **

**In Demigods We Trust,**

**Sammy *(Yes, like Hazel's first boyfriend, and yes, I am a boy and that is my real name).**


	29. Chapter 29 - Gaia Arrives

STORY NOW BEING TOLD IN THE NARRARATOR'S POINT OF VIEW

Percy

Camp Half-Blood was an organized mess. The archers were waiting in positions in trees; the Aphrodite kids – as usual – were straightening armor and washing dirt off of people's faces. Most of the Aphrodite kids anyways, Piper was standing with her dagger next to Jason. Hephaestus kids were making more weapons, Athena children were going over and revising battle plans, and Chiron was conducting this orchestra of nervous demigods.

"No word from the Olympians?" Percy asked him.

Chiron looked at the boy with glassy eyes, "I'm afraid not." Suddenly Percy felt like a twelve year old again, when he found out he was a half-blood.

The surrounding demigods who heard Chiron's response sighed sadly.

"Now cheer up everyone, but stay on the lookout. Gaia and her army of monsters are supposed to arrive at dusk," Chiron said.

"What are our chances?" Percy asked in a low voice. Chiron looked at him sympathetically and Percy immediately didn't want him to answer. He just put a hand on Percy's shoulder and gripped him tightly. "Everything will turn out Percy." He galloped away and left the young demigod alone.

Percy walked around for a while checking to see how the other demigods were doing. Luke, Will, and Anastasia were in the infirmary being given ambrosia so that they would be ready for battle, and Nico was standing in the wings behind them. Percy went to the Poseidon cabin to go . . . think for a while. He hadn't talked to his Dad since my birthday, which was quite some time before he fell into Tartarus. He wanted to see him badly, but upon walking into the cabin it wasn't his Dad he found, it was Annabeth.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey." Percy plopped down on his bunk and laid back against his pillow. His Father must have known blue would be his favorite color because almost everything in the room, including the pillow, was blue. It smelled like the ocean, Montauk to be exact.

"How are you?" she asked. "Fine," Percy replied trying to smile. She walked over to Percy's bed and sat next to him. Neither of them felt like talking they just wanted to be near each other. They relaxed there for about five minutes when suddenly in the distance a conch horn blew.

Percy didn't want to say anything but a gut instinct told him they were doomed. Annabeth and Percy jumped up and threw on their armor, grabbed their weapons, and ran out to the pavilion where several demigods were assembled. Everyone was pointing to the hill. Half-Blood Hill. An army of . . . Chimera had assembled there. "They can't get through the barrier," an Aphrodite kid said firmly, but Percy could tell she was starting to wonder. "Battle stations!" Chiron screamed galloping towards us.

"Percy, go to the river and the adjoining lake; you know what to do," Chiron said, "Annabeth, join your siblings." Annabeth jumped towards Percy and kissed him, right in front of everyone.

"Stay out of trouble Seaweed Brain," she said.

"Watch your back Wise Girl," Percy retorted with a forced grin.

Ana

She grabbed her sword and threw on her armor as quickly as she could, trying not to kill herself on the way to the top of Half-Blood Hill. She leaped over the stumps and rocks like a professional hurdler. Upon arriving at her destination she assembled with the demigods who were professional in swords play and tried to make herself look as big as possible. Luke was there and when he saw her he walked over.

"I'm sorry about-""Don't worry, it's fine," Ana said.

"You don't have to be my . . . girlfriend," he said quickly, "Frankly I wouldn't blame you, your brother doesn't want me anywhere near you anyways, and considering my past if I were you I wouldn't want to be friends with me-""Luke, shut up already!" she yelled, suddenly feeling bad.

"Look, you are perfectly fine to me, I wouldn't change you for the world, and we have more important things to worry about right now," she said while pointing to the army of chimera currently trying to head-slam their way in. They stood about twenty feet away from the magic wall surrounding the camp and stood ready. Suddenly the godlings heard a horrifying crack. The dragon put in charge of guarding the tree and the Golden Fleece on the tree grabbed the fleece and flew away into the fiery sky. The Chimera chased the poor thing out of its perch. They heard a sickening crack and turned quickly to the tall pine tree. Thalia's tree was tipping over.

"Look out!" a demigod screamed. The tree fell on one of the Chimera, killing it instantly.

"One down four to go!" one of the demigods behind me yelled. Suddenly the blue tinted wall separating us from the Chimera and the rest of civilization started to crumble. "Good gods," Luke said in a whispery voice, "Zeus isn't going to be happy about this." Thalia's tree tipped right over, the roots ripped right out of the ground. The demigods all looked at each other; Gaia had something to do with this. Gaia was here.

Will

"Chiron! Look at the wall!" Will screamed. The protective wall surrounding our camp was disintegrating into nothingness. The demigods around him stared at their disappearing life-line blankly.

"Great Zeus," Chiron murmured in a daze. He looked like he was going to start crying. The chimera spilled into camp right for our defense at the top of the hill. "Archers," Chiron called, "Loose your arrows!" They let them fly straight for the Chimera. One dropped like a rock and disintegrated in seconds. But the other arrows bounced off of the remaining Chimera and only seemed to tick them off more so. Chiron looked flustered but said, "Again!" The archers released another volley of arrows towards the Chimera but the wind turned. Several of the arrows drove into some of the demigods fighting at the hill.

"No!" Chiron screamed galloping towards the hill; his voice full of hatred. The demigods had never seen Chiron so . . . angry, even during the second Titan War he still stayed somewhat humorous. Although for being a three millennia old centaur they guessed he had seen almost everything. The demigods at the top of the hill were slowly being slaughtered. It was obvious to Will that Boreas, one of the wind gods had something to do with the arrows hitting our own troops.

"Ana," Will murmured. My sister who wasn't a top notch archer went with the other swordfighters to the top of Half-Blood Hill. 'Please don't let her be one of the people we hit with our arrows, oh please,' Will thought to himself. "Damn it," he screamed. He jumped from his perch in one of the trees and his siblings watched him with confused looks on their faces. He ran from the trees to the top of the hill which was around a mile away, almost catching up to Chiron on the way.


	30. Chapter 30 - Long Island Sound

Percy

Percy and the demigods defending the side of Camp Half-Blood surrounded by water saw the carnage that was taking place at the hill but they had our own problems to worry about. Polybites was waving at him from the water with a bunch of Telekhines following him in suit. "Hey Percy," a familiar voice said. The Son of Poseidon turned around and Thalia was standing behind him, "Are the hunters-""Yes Percy, the Hunters are here, so is Artemis." Percy turned to the right of Thalia and saw the auburn haired Artemis smiling at him. He turned back to Polybites and his little minions and tried to look tough, but everyone knew he was scared to death, they all were.

The Hunters nocked their arrows and let them loose into the Telekhines. They disappeared with the flowing water but as soon as one disappeared two more popped up in its place. The Hunter's quivers stayed full no matter how many arrows they used but it was obvious they were getting tired of shooting. The ground beneath them started shaking violently. "Gaia," Artemis murmured under her breath. The monsters were about fifty feet away when Thalia screamed, "Now!" Percy knew she was talking directly to him. This time he was on his own. He couldn't contact his Dad and ask for a hurricane, he had to make the hurricane himself, and already before even trying, his subconscious was telling him he couldn't do it for long. Percy raised his arms slowly and the water started churning around Polybites and his army of Telekhines. Chiron kept Percy out of the fighting going on in the rest of the camp so that he would have the endurance to put up a strong front against Polybites. Polybites looked down at his feet and started to sway. He clenched his teeth and kept trudging through the water, obviously having difficulty. It took Polybites about five minutes to move ten feet.

"Artemis!" Thalia screamed. Artemis turned sharply looking at Thalia who was fighting off a couple of monsters.

"Percy is weakening," Thalia continued, "Go see if you can help him." Percy didn't want to admit it but he was getting tired quickly. His demigod-made hurricane was weakening to nearly a small tropical storm. Percy lifted his arms higher trying to draw any more strength he had. His shirt was dripping with water and he was drenched from head to foot. He had let his immunity to water leave him as he was overexerting himself and was getting overheated. The cold water felt good on his face. 'Dad please help,' Percy thought silently to himself. Not that he expected to hear from his Dad. He hadn't heard from him in so long he started to wonder if he even existed anymore. Polybites was getting too close for comfort so Percy threw in one more burst of power. The hunters behind him were fighting off the Telekhines that manages to break through and Artemis was shooting any enemy that dared breathe. Suddenly Percy's legs started to shake and he caught his breath in his throat. He wouldn't be able to keep up his hurricane much longer and it became obvious to everyone that Polybites wasn't struggling as badly as before. Percy fell to his knees but kept his arms lifted and the hurricane going. The tug in his gut was lessening and black spots started to dance in his vision.

"Come on Percy," he said aloud to himself, "What would your Mom say?" Suddenly a cold piece of metal went through his side. Percy let out a stifled grunt and looked down. One of the Telekhines went unnoticed by the Hunters and stabbed him with their sword. He let one hand fall away from his duty of keeping Polybites distracted and went for his sword. He quickly stabbed the Telekhine who had just removed his sword from Percy's abdomen and the monster turned to dust.

"Mom," he mumbled. Blood was seeping from his midsection at an unhealthy rate and the exhaustion from his hurricane made the dizziness from the stab wound much worse. He stopped the hurricane and tried standing up. He staggered around on the dock on Long Island sound for what seemed to him like an eternity.

"I'm sorry . . ." he said before his legs gave out. He collapsed on the deck in a heap. He could feel the world slipping away from him and he dug his finger nails into the dock underneath him. Polybites advanced towards him with ease now that the hurricane was gone. "You're mine Perseus!" Polybites screamed. "Don't die until I get to you!" Percy was bleeding, soaked to the bone, and near death but naturally that didn't stop the impertinent Son of Poseidon. 'Poseidon . . .' Percy thought. "Dad," he managed to croak out. He fell off of the dock and into the water.


	31. Chapter 31 - Arrival of the Gods

Will

Will ran past the rest of the monsters which were now invading Camp Half-Blood. The Minotaur, bad Centaurs, the works – 'Gaia certainly isn't taking it easy on us,' Will thought. He ran around the hill dodging Chimera heads looking for his sister. "Ana!" he screamed. No answer. "Has anybody seen my sister?!" he asked. Everyone was too busy fighting to take notice of him, and that is when he saw her. She was gripping the snake head of one of the Chimera, about fifteen feet up in the air. "Ana hold on!" Will screamed. He grabbed his sword and slid underneath the Chimera slitting it open. "Bet you weren't expecting that!" Will yelled to the Chimera but meaning it more for himself to hear. The Chimera crumbled to dust and Ana hit the ground with a hard thud. "Ouch," she said. Will ran to her and asked, "Are you okay?!" "Oh, I'm fine," she replied standing up. In the meantime the surrounding demigods took down the other two Chimera. "Let's go help the others!" Hazel, child of Pluto said, "Two of you stay here," she continued. Two Ares kids took up posts at Thalia's tree, now fallen. They could see their 'guard-dragon' flying around high above them with the Golden Fleece in its claws. "Let's go," Ana said while grabbing Will's arm, "We have monsters to kill."

Thalia

Percy just passed out and went underwater, that was all there was to it. "Percy!" Thalia screamed. "Move it!" Artemis yelled. All of the hunters hopped up onto a nearby boulder with Artemis and water blew the Telekhines back into the water. Poseidon had arrived, in his fifteen feet tall form. His face was remarkably red and his wrinkles were deeper than usual. He was working up a hurricane to bury Polybites and the rest of his minions when Artemis broke his attention. "Poseidon! Your son!" she screamed. Poseidon turned towards Artemis with a look of worried acknowledgement. The god of the sea lifted his arms and sent his hurricane down into the water with a bang. Polybites was gone and the water was still. "Percy!" Thalia screamed in vain. Percy didn't swim out of the water, for all Thalia knew he might have been . . . but she couldn't think about that now, there was more fighting to be done. "Go help the others!" Poseidon yelled. Thalia, Artemis, and the rest of the Hunters unhappily obeyed and left the Lord of the Sea. Thalia turned back in time to see Poseidon morph into seawater and sink into the sea.

Percy

He didn't think he was dead, but he didn't know because he had never been dead before. The seawater wasn't healing him like it always did, but in truth Percy was too weakened to try healing himself. "Percy," he heard a familiar voice whisper. He struggled to keep his eyes open under the water as he was slowly sinking downwards. "Hello?" he managed to squeak out. Suddenly he felt a blast of water underneath him and a large hand grabbed him around the waist. The hand managed to find its way to the wound given to him by the Telekhine and Percy passed out from the pain. Suddenly Percy was watching the whole scene play out from above. He could no longer feel the pain in his side. His father, Poseidon, had arrived and was dragging him out of the water. He brought him up to a dry patch of sand and laid him down. Suddenly in the distance Percy heard a bell ringing and upon looking behind him he saw Charon, looking very sporty in his Italian suit, just like the last time he saw him.

"Am I-""Dead?" the god with the winged feet asked – interrupting his sentence – "You are in the "In-Between, you now must choose whether you want to go to the Underworld or stay." Hermes looked just the same as when Percy had seen him last. His black curly hair and his elfish features just didn't seem to go together.

"I . . ." Percy began. Percy could die now and go to Elysium, where he would never suffer again. His old friends would be there waiting for him. Percy turned away from the god and looked off into the distance. Through the Mist he could see Annabeth defending the Big House, he saw his Mother speeding down the highway – nearing Camp Half-Blood, and he could see his father trying in vain to wake his son. He couldn't leave all of these people - and gods - who loved him, "I think I'll stay," Percy said defiantly. Hermes let out a fake disappointed sigh and then smiled, "Well cousin, I thought you would. Good luck," Hermes said while giving Percy a pat on the back.

"Thanks," Percy replied. Suddenly the scene changed and Percy felt his side start to throb again and his dizziness had gotten worse now that he was out of the water. "Ah," he screeched out as his father grabbed his shoulders.

"Percy," Poseidon half-screamed, "don't move." Percy hadn't planned on going anywhere anyway. "You came," Percy said calmly, "I thought-""I would never leave you Percy," Poseidon said boldly as he looked at his son, the look of worry melting off of his face. He put his hand on Percy's wound and the boy winced.

"I'm sorry," Poseidon began, "the pain will be gone in a moment." Suddenly the wound started to close up and Percy could feel the color return to his face. "I have to go help-""Really Percy, you almost died, now enough helping others, it's my turn to help you," Poseidon said. "No Dad, Zeus would blast you-""Zeus be damned! Gods and demigods have to work together to defeat Gaia right?" Poseidon asked rhetorically. Percy looked into his Dad's blue-green eyes and an understanding passed between them.

Suddenly a blinding green light flashed at the center of Camp Half-Blood. "Gaia?" Percy asked, hoping it wouldn't be the case. His father nodded and the grim look returned to his face. "Come on Dad," Percy said with a smile - knowing that would release some of his father's stress. Percy stood up and shook the sand from his jeans, "Now you'll see how water-spawn really fight." Poseidon let out a booming laugh – definitely unfitting for the situation – and ran after his son who was running towards where the light had come from. "Are you saying I don't know how to fight?" Poseidon shouted after him. Despite the situation and the fact he was still a bit dizzy Percy was happier than he had been in years.


End file.
